Toucan Nest

Genesis, Quetzal

27 Genesis, Quetzal Swallow at dawn one tiny avocado. Hold so still the world begins. Love cry of the jaguar dyes crimson your deepest belly down. Each glance a hummingbird, preening, the narrow trail of her open bill. Copper-green wing, amethyst geode throat. Blink once and stars take flight— sing like trogons, motmots, yellow-thighed finches, sooty robins, nightingale thrushes, acorn carpinteros tucked into carved-out holes, wrens and siskins 28 seen or hidden. Cataratas, waterfalls of song. Your chest, vest of drip tips, highland forest awake after rain. Breezeruffled streams, your tails run to the Pacific, waves hungry to mingle with reef and sand, velvet green crest, teal of tide pool. When you push off, flowerpiercers and flycatchers fall from your feathers. When you push off, earth gasps and sighs. Your wings stir 29 root aromas tangled underfoot. When you push off, cloud and sky reshape around you. When you push off, a new world spins. ...