Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Poem: "Feeding Bluebirds"

This is the freebie for the November [community profile] crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] alexseanchai. It belongs to the series Walking the Beat.


"Feeding Bluebirds"


In early spring, Dale and Kelly
drive out to the country to help
a lesbian birdwatching club
establish a bluebird trail
at a relative's farm.

They build birdhouses
and attach them to posts
all along a fencerow.

They also build birdfeeders
designed to exclude larger birds
and reserve the tasty mealworms
for the intended bluebirds.

Dale is handy with a hammer,
although the uneven ground
makes it difficult for her to walk
even with a spike stuck on
the end of her titanium cane.

The bluebirds watch
with interest, and Kelly
points them out to people.

The lesbians laugh and chat
with each other as they work.

The singles flirt, and
the couples steal kisses.

They understand that happiness
is not something that can be bought,
but it can be courted if you nourish it
and make a place for it in your life,

like a trail for bluebirds.

* * *

Notes:

Eastern Bluebirds are native to the Boston area, although they prefer wild areas and rarely come closer than the outer suburbs. You can help them by building houses and establishing a bluebird trail. Here's a picture of the lesbian trail.

Feeding bluebirds is another way to attract them. You can browse different feeders to buy or make your own. The lesbians are putting up post feeders like this one.

The original prompt called for counteracting the Dead/Evil Lesbian and Gayngst tropes. Stop-trope. Stop, trope, stop! Stop, I say! Die, die, DIE.

Bluebirds traditionally symbolize happiness. Spending time in nature also improves mood.
Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, gender studies, nature, poem, poetry, reading, romance, weblit, wildlife, writing
Subscribe

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 4 comments
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

November 19 2016, 10:57:01 UTC 4 years ago

*drives stake through the heart of the trope, decapitates it and buries head at a crossroads with it's mouth filled with garlic, buries rest of body on consecrated ground*

Aww!! Ok, that's a nice bit of marshmallow fluff!

and incidentally, bluebirds are one species of bird that's known to have same-sex pairings fairly frequently. [they still mate with the opposite sex, but then go back to their permanent mate, or drive out the female (after egg laying) depending on which way round.]
ysabetwordsmith

Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

November 19 2016, 11:12:54 UTC 4 years ago

>> *drives stake through the heart of the trope, decapitates it and buries head at a crossroads with it's mouth filled with garlic, buries rest of body on consecrated ground* <<

:D

>> Aww!! Ok, that's a nice bit of marshmallow fluff! <<

I'm glad you liked it.

>> and incidentally, bluebirds are one species of bird that's known to have same-sex pairings fairly frequently. [they still mate with the opposite sex, but then go back to their permanent mate, or drive out the female (after egg laying) depending on which way round.] <<

I did not know that. I did know geese and penguins. In fact, at least one zoo has given a pair of gay penguins an egg to hatch.
siliconshaman

Re: Thank you!

siliconshaman

November 19 2016, 11:18:34 UTC 4 years ago

It's a common reproductive strategy, enough so that people have speculated that it might have arisen in the ancestral saurian species... but nobody is ready for the idea of gay dinosaurs apparently.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

November 19 2016, 11:24:45 UTC 4 years ago

But lots of reptiles have parthenogenesis. Some of those are far more productive with a female partner to stimulate egg laying. It's in Jurassic Park -- "life finds a way" -- although I think they spliced that from frogs, which can do the same trick.