Starved by Tara Bray
Starved
Tara BrayJust one dipper would be enough perhaps,
doused and prodding into the cold wet
underworld. A bird my family’s never known
at work in its shaded stream of simple feeding.
What begins as moving shadow or flickered dark,
is realized in an act so crisp and lasting,
the end result is being satisfied.
Once I watched a dipper feed in rain, all adazzle
and yet instilled with calm. The drops hit ground,
bounced back, the dipper dipped,
the regulated knee-bend in between,
the land living, and water lulling us along.
In this world made up of hunger and of seeking
a quiet luck to see a bird for what it is.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in The Hudson Review, Summer Issue, 2015.
ABOUT TARA BRAY
Tara Bray is the author of Mistaken for Song (2009), her first collection of poetry and winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize. She earned an MFA from the University of Arkansas, where she held the Walton Fellowship in Creative Writing. Bray has published work in various publications, including Verse Daily, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review, and the Southern Review. The recipient of multiple awards and honors, including a State of Nevada Individual Artist Fellowship and a Sierra… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: hunger • observation • stillness • Or browse the index
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