![](https://floydsalas.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/themes/toolbox/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Animal-Bird-Catesby-102-Razor-Billed-Black-Bird-of-Jamaica.jpg&h=700&w=460)
A black-lipped bird
hunting from a wind
snatched the yellow stalk of my tongue
from the belly of a rain cloud
and spit it on the peak
of a climbing mountain
No odor of mint pine there
only dogwood
and bat screech
poison leaf
and goat pellet
and the numbed pond
of a rock spring
stiff
with the peelings
of August snow
Floyd Salas