Tiny, Little, Felicia Olin

Anima

Phase I

Azurean birds copulate in the feathery

Trees of Paradise while leanly long-limbed

Eve licks the juice that runs across crimson

Skin, one deep and delicious bite filling her throat.

Phase II

Cobalt birds tweet tempting tunes to rival

Even the temptress Helen, whose queenly

Persona keeps the ship of state afloat while

The crews of a thousand ships perish on alien soil.

Phase III

A sky of bird blue covers nests of mothers and

Their babes, free of fathers, as Mary caresses

Her own swelling belly, a fertile womb never sown

With lust and desire, foreign to paternal pleasure.

 

Phase IV

Clear-headed Sophia, in her belle-shaped gown,

Tarnished and a poor fit besides, leads her

Exaggerated happiness to avian gallows—blue,

Yes, but capable of contentment after all.

Ted Morrissey