TheBanyanTree: brown creeper

[Janice Money]

How lovely!  So interesting that I had to google 'brown creeper' in the hope
of finding a picture of this industrious little creature, not knowing if
that was an actual name because, having only ever spent one night in the US
and that at LA airport, I've never come across it before.  I found it, heard
a recording of its "thin, reedy whistle", learned about its distribution and
also its foraging habits.  That was all very informative but I enjoyed the
elegance of your description much more.  Thank you.

Janice  


-----Original Message-----
From: thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com
[mailto:thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com] On Behalf Of Mike Pingleton
Sent: Thursday, 5 December 2013 10:42 PM
To: Banyan Tree
Subject: TheBanyanTree: brown creeper

your thin, reedy whistle
is so often drowned,
but this dim early hour the town lies
dreaming, the crows still sleeping.

I hope to catch you in silhouette
if I am to catch you at all,
the trees black fractals against
a wall of tarnished clouds.

six-legged are summer's children
and summer has foundered in the
sea of fallen leaves, but you know
where hides the thrips and midges,

the barley worm, the beetles in their
bark crevices.  cloaked in the black
you are ratcheting up the maple
like a clock-work toy, a steeplejack

on a hidden string.  hop then pause,
tail propped, probing cracks and holes
with your broom-straw beak, the
source of your thin, reedy whistle.

you weigh little more than moonlight;
the ground's faint pull makes the tree
a mere rough road.  where the trunk
tapers you flutter-fall to earth,

lift your head and start upward anew.
this is your own hard way
and your bird heart hammers;
it is said just one thin spider

earns you muscle and gristle enough
to master another ascent.
I whistle for my dogs, we three have
our own dark trees to transit.