Category: New Mexico

Longitudinal Awareness

Post author By Makar
Post date September 19, 2020
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Longitudinal Awareness
Not really a thing —
Not spatial, more sensory
The open capillary of mental exercise
A receptor that activates once in the wild
A slower foot, a surer step
Knowing that it is too quiet
While noting every sound.
The calls of the creatures
No room for mistakes, so
you lay awake wondering if it
be predator or varmint
Alive
Open
Receiving
Consciousness
Ready for the surprises
Except for your own
Mental illness

2020 American Place Bird Song New Mexico Poems

Dead on Arrival

Migratory Birds
Dying by the 1000s
Warblers
Western Wood Pewee
Fly Catchers
Bluebirds
Blackbirds
Sparrows
—sorrow
Stumbling dumbly
Into the streets
Hit by cars
Falling
Out of
Trees 🌳
Starved
Of nutty energy
Not enough fuel to complete
A journey taken too soon…
For fires 🔥 raged
And burned their homes
Smoke fills the air
And burns their lungs
Away away away away
Into the dry desert sun
Only to keel over
Mid-way through their run
It’s not the apocalypse
Yet, one might blame…the devil
Climate change with dead bird denial!

2020 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems Road Less Travelled

Rio del Ciudad

Her curves cut through him
She is the center of his life
All roads in his city

End upon her shores; Her Mountains
–Earthquakes, Time and her origins–
Embrace him Day and Night

Wind and heat; parch and monsoon
She drinks from the sky
to bring his thirst to an end

He lights Her nights and
bridges her spans
They form this imperfect circle

One man, called by many names
Beeʼeldííl Dahsinil; Arawageeki; Vakêêke;
Alo:ke:k’ya; Gołgéeki’yé — now AL-bə-kur-kee

One woman, loved by the people
mets’ichi chena, posoge, paslápaane
hañapakwa, Tó Baʼáadi, Female River, Great Waters, Rio Grande

2020 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Bird Bath

Post author By Makar
Post date April 20, 2020
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Mr. Robins
Takes a bath
He’s not concerned with math
Except perhaps
To count their eggs
Or later how many mouths they’ve fed
But today he’s just getting clean
A deep splash
And shake
Sending water splattering
He takes this
“Bird bath”
Seriously
He pays no mind to you and me.
…
Not until the dog comes out
Does Mr. Robins
Give a shout
No, now that he
Is clean all through
Fly to the nest’s
Alls left to do.