Earthly Response To A Heaven-Sent Purple-Crested Lourie Poem by Diana van den Berg

You with your royal-purple crown
and your flash
of radiant-red underwings in flight,
you wash the grip
from my shoulders
and soften my smile
and uncurl my toes
and pause my fingers
on the keyboard
and waft my burdens
away, away out of memory
and waltz with my soul
with your sun-soaked call
that sings of
roosters and avian engines
revving up
to bliss
and those moments of then
and thereafter
make the boundless sunshine
wrap me close and happy,
and the clouds
bounce mischievously
as they giggle across
a sky bluer and cleaner
than
the fragility
of a tiny bluebell.

(13 April 2013)