Velene Campbell

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Chick
 ---For my women friends who work in the arts

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Small quail, fat, black eyes like beads, conscious of gathering
her young.

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Wolf, shaggy-tailed with her cubs, wrestling, teeth like claws,
predator, wild-throated night runner, yellow-eyed female in her den.

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Snake, laying her eggs, shedding her skin, slowly wrapping herself
around branches, soaking in heat, retreating underground.

Whale, black and white, spouting, moving through water, a sleek fish,
an animal breathing air, watching through salt, sliding against
her mate.

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Polar bear, claws like steel, lumbering, heavy, moving in snow,
eater of fish.

Eagle, perched in nest, egg-layer, breaker of mice bones,
flying through clouds, watching for prey.

Lynn, moon in her throat, seer through night, gray dove,
soft round-hipped woman with eyes as black as the hills,
her hands as hollow as reeds
shoot out light.

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Carol, voice like rain,
soft-bodied Russian woman walking through snow,
embracer of time, ringer of sonorous bells.

Chick Chick Chick Chick
Laura, eater of the rainbow, eyes wild behind placid masks,
shaper of porcelain, rattlesnake, deadly killer of the tame.

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Erika, maker of light, words flow from her,
mate of the sleek leopard.

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick
Tembra, growling small bird, wild bringer of laughter, gentle friend,
frightening adversary, shaper of events. Small chick
scratching in dirt, small quail, wolf, snake, whale, polar bear, eagle--

strong-legged little girl.

----Santa Monica, 1980

Copyright (C)Velene Campbell, 2006. All rights reserved.