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Cedar Waxwing, Pyracantha II

By Lehua M. Taitano

Here are the ones I think will come: Wren, chestnut backed chickadee, hairy woodpecker, scrub jay. Words of a dream retold dissolve into pulp, into seed glue. Into chips of memory. This morning, I’ve a soft waxwing in hand. We are both stunned. His eye is cast beyond currents or cadence. He is shallow breath and a curled foot, tucked and gnarled. The purple stain I mistook for blood is rather three berries athroat bruised and slowly oozing. Berry juice tattoos his chin, small foot, my spring fingers. I remember thinking to hack down the pyracantha when all I could hear were thorns. If I listen long enough to form a new ear, I would press it low to the damp earth. There, the thrum of bacteria tickling roots might tap a rhythm I forgot to remember. Soft numb resilience, wing me a story. Scratch me a skin poem. Chase the sparrow’s tail, roll the boulder. Convince my hemoglobin. Take the spirit from the palm or cedar waxwing pluck the berry or hummingbird sip the nectar. Stillness and furious flight, one perfect circle. I dip thumb into water and droplet him back to consciousness. For a moment we are eye to eye—then we alight.

 

 

 

Listen as Lehua M. Taitano reads Cedar Waxwing, Pyracantha II.
Added: Friday, June 6, 2025  /  Used with permission.
Lehua M. Taitano
Photo by Jess X Snow.

Lehua M. Taitano, familian Kabesa yan Kuetu, is a queer CHamoru writer and interdisciplinary artist from Yigu, Guåhan (Guam) and co-founder of Art 25: Art in the Twenty-fifth Century. She is the author of two volumes of poetry—Inside Me an Island and A Bell Made of Stones. Her chapbook, appalachiapacific, won the Merriam-Frontier Award for short fiction. She has two chapbooks of poetry and visual art:  Sonoma and Capacity. Taitano's work investigates modern indigeneity, decolonization, and cultural identity in the context of diaspora.

Image Description: A CHamoru woman with dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair smiles warmly while standing outdoors in front of lush green foliage. She wears a black shirt and a black blazer decorated with a white daisy floral pattern.

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