Thomas R. Smith: "Baby Wrens' Voices"

                        I am a student of wrens.
                        When the mother bird returns
                        to her brood, beak squirming
                        with winged breakfast, a shrill
                        clamor rises like jingling
                        from tiny, high-pitched bells.
                        Who'd have guessed such a small
                        house contained so many voices?
                        The sound they make is the pure sound
                        of life's hunger. Who hangs our house
                        in the world's branches, and listens
                        when we sing from our hunger?
                        Because I love best those songs
                        that shake the house of the singer,
                        I am a student of wrens.

"Baby Wrens' Voices" by Thomas R. Smith, from Kinnickinnic. © Parallel Press, 2008.

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer (originally color).

Author photo credit: Jens Gunelson (originally black and white).