OUR BEAUTIFUL UMBRELLA FRIENDS

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A MANIFESTATION
Mary Zoll
c. 12/95
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unashamedly eccentric Joan
came for Thanksgiving
a bird on her shoulder--
an umbrella cockatoo six months old and
unimaginably white

this white is not an innocent velvet lily white
a tender sea-foam white
or a gentle melting-showflake white

this is not a pristine isolated iceberg white
a momentary dream-fragment white
or a dangerous deep-pile polar-bear white

this is not a cold starlight-filtered-through-space white

this is a staggering white
hypnotic white
warm-blooded
feathered
phenomenal
multitudes of living white

the working
interconnected white
of her main flight feathers

the soft stunning white
of the silken down
on her chest

the personal white under her wings
where she invites scratching
occasionally

the fluffy puffed-cloud
almost frivolous white
of her ruff

the delicate white of the miniature cheek feathers
she angles forward
to close off the sides of her beak

the glowing white
of the expanding sideburns and crown
she raises for show

a crest more intricate than a Victorian-lace collar

more spectacular than a satin papal tiara

more wondrous than the halo of an angel

this
is god white

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