Oz Hardwick
Murmuration
Even hummingbirds are heavier than air,
their weight measured in sincerity,
their wings husks of forgetfulness.
I don’t want to acknowledge their falling,
their downward dance to feathers
stuffed into pillows on a dull brass bed,
so, instead, I will call into question
the wider relations between components:
bed, sky, all uncertain moments.
The murmuration shifts course.
What is it about? What can we learn?
Oz Hardwick‘s latest poetry collection is The Ringmaster’s Apprentice (Valley Press, 2014), and he is co-author, with Amina Alyal, of the Saboteur-shortlisted Close as Second Skins (IDP, 2015). Oz is Professor of English at Leeds Trinity University, and has written extensively on misericords and animal iconography in the Middle Ages under the name Paul Hardwick.