Redwing

The display is not simply of gesture,
but of rising sun,
red pain rushing over a threshold,
a new birth come
in a flash of Etruscan yellow.

What do I know of Etruscans
or of what birds think,
if they do
in the first pink of morning?

The morning sends out its heralds.

Each bird is sent
with a message inked red on its wings.
Each shoulder blinks
a code
like the wink of an eye.

The flashes need little decoding.

Unless I'm wrong,
the intent of the message is song
and the text is sent
in the frequency and range of Apollo:

yellow tremolo and red vibrato.