Birds of a Clear Genre
by Dennis Patrick Slattery
[Image: "Hummingbird" © Meganne Forbes, used by permission

Smack in the middle of a psycho-drama
Hummingbirds enter through a broken screen.
Sharp beaks poke the hair of women on
their knees.
Outside, a deacon, solemn in prayer,
seeks the sky, feels tiny droplets of
cold rain gather in his breviary.

Lift the veil — crimson — for a moment
and the gold threads that keep it whole
slip the weave to wrap themselves
gently around small birds full
of flits and hesitant flights.

Downstairs in the kitchen four cooks
together stir a bird broth and wait
for drama's climax.
Their spoons prescribe a tragic
trajectory through laughter of
players all finding release
in the small gray feathers of
bird.

Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph. D. is a member of the Core Faculty in Mythological Studies, Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of 12 books, including 3 volumes of poetry, two with accompanying CDs. His poetry has appeared in many journals and magazines over the years. He has written more than 200 articles and reviews that focus on the confluence of culture, spirit, soul, myth and poetics. Dr. Slattery's work includes The Idiot: Dostoevsky's Fantastic Prince and The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture), and Station-To-Station: A Monastic Memoir. He is co-editor with Lionel Corbett of Depth Psychology: Meditations in the Field as well as Psychology at the Threshold, and a volume of poetry, Casting the Shadows: Selected Poems. His most recent work is a collection of poetry, A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor. He is a Fellow of The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture where he teaches the classics each summer to high school teachers in a Summer Institute for Teachers. He lectures and offers workshops to a variety of Jungian groups in the United States and Canada.

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