It's not the March 'Sketch' (I'm late) but here, have a poem.

[summer_jackel]

Birds

If you were a bird, I think you would be
among the small, light perchers,
fleet and wary-eyed, half-hidden in the brambles.
Perhaps here and there flashing a shock of immoderate color,
red or blue or yellow blazing from your back, your breast,
beneath your wing.
Quick little ache of unexpected beauty.

If I was a bird, I think I would like to be a duck.
Although I would always envy the osprey’s mad grace;
at home in shallow waters, dabbling my bill in soft mud
with the sun mottling sleek, oiled feathers.
The water cold and perfect and delicious all around me.

Ducks are happy.
Their deaths quick, their lives full of moving rivers
Brief explosions of flight and web-footed, dirty joy.
Leave me amongst the weeds and bugs and rushes
With songbirds flitting in the branches all around.

Comments

[yathin.livejournal.com]

Nice! :-)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[raveness-d.livejournal.com]

Lovely.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

I am delighted by the phrase "web-footed, dirty joy".

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thank you!
I have to admit that this was a favorite of mine, too. Quack!

[swandog.livejournal.com]

Aww, lovely! <3 And Sayh and I can totally relate; though of course, for me, it would have to be a swan. ;)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

oh good, I'm glad that you enjoyed. I was wondering if you would read this one and might like it. Of course you're a swan.

Your swan card is, I think, my favorite one in the Pathfinders deck. I was sad that it didn't come with all of the great background info you had on your FA posting of the piece; I loved that and was hoping that every animal in the deck had a similar writeup.

But yeah, when I'm happy, I'm often waterfowl.

[swandog.livejournal.com]

*nods* :) Sayh especially liked this, since he was an osprey before he became a duck-gryphon. :D And aww, thank you! Yeah, I wished we could have included long write-ups to our cards in the booklet, but everything had to be summed-up in a paragraph, and some participants in the deck hardly had any write-up at all, so the mods had to improvise for them. :P Anyways, I'm just glad I was able to sell most of my decks, and that the originals found good homes! :)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense about the cards, and I certainly get the financial constraints, but I still wish Pathfinders could've had a little book that came with it like a lot of Tarot decks have.

...and now I'm feeling the need to get off my tail and put some work into that Tarot deck I started a couple years ago.

I love Sayh's panduck. and your swandog, of course...omg, seriously 'unique' gryphons that work so well. I keep meaning to draw them. I've not decided if my "duck self" is a mallard or a common merganser, but ducky, certainly---and a strongly non-predatory bird, which I rather need to balance the Coyote. Nonetheless, the osprey always hold my eye.

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

You should show this to ka_crow. She's a professional poet and I think she'd be impressed with this effort. :>

It's a beatiful poem, though if I ended up choosing, I'd probably choose to be a heron or an egret.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad that you liked it! Feel free to show it around if you want. /shy/

I think that herons and egrets are amazing birds, too. Something about ducks I just resonate to, somehow.