The feet of the boreal chickadee

(lizard-scaled, iguana-clawed,
curled tight) are slate
blue (blue of stone,
of blood other
than mammalian). Inside
the hermit thrush's mouth,
sunflower petals
splay hunger. O speckle
me, stripe me, shade me from
this flesh so uniform. Feather me. Give
my tongue a true barb
so sliding
from a mouth
it catches and pulls
breath, soul, the pulsed red
esophageal lining. Love
and wonderment. Wonderment.
Let a mouth startle, let
your hands on me seem blue
and scaled, seem impossible
terrible       strange