Riehlife Poem of the Day: Stephen Kuusisto “The Mockingbird on Central”
Meet Stephen Kuusisto Professor, Author, Speaker, Blogger, Disability Advocate…POET.
The Mockingbird on Central
for Connie
by Stephen Kuusisto
Only Bread, Only Light
This bird who lands in the oak tree
Is both a comedian and a natural fact:
In a hundred-years house
We awaken to a sweet thing,
A motor of avian laughter
Ten feet from our curtain.
This is fortune. He sings “La Paloma,”
“Wiener Bonbons,”
L’heure exquise,
Noel Coward, Tonight at 8:30.
What precocity, a bird half the size
Of an Anjou pear
Who flirts like Galli-Curci,
Shows off like Caruso,
And all from an oak branch
Swaying above our porch.
O how he brags at 3 a.m.!
O how he imitates the happiness of others!