Contrasting Colors

a

ruby

-throated

hum-

ming

-bird

memorizes your

unimportant face

as you fill

the glass feeder

dips into alchemy

sips nectar transmutes

sweetness into

an elixir

of fierce whirring wings

air fae

wind whisperer

spirit in

summer's

fading

wilting flowers

promises nothing

mostly remembers

near the turning

season

alights

alone

on a journey

across valleys

forests

towns

the great southern gulf

of warm water

never knowing the names

foolish explorers and kings

gave

try to give

to the long roads

to the high mountains

to the wine-dark

restless seas

all the while

the obese emperor

cannot walk twenty yards

down a red carpet unattended

without the supporting

outstretched arm of an autocrat

or the gold props brought

by a cast of supplicating thugs

promises everything

in a blizzard of orange gibberish

mostly never remembers