Oh, O mejiro,
perched on tangerine
so very very orange,
and you so very green.
You use your beak to
raid the citrus rind,
a tiny jack-o’-lantern
you loot and leave behind.
I eye each bonsai
branch where you alight,
the ring around your eyeball
a zero stamped in white.
Hey, a flight away
is a stellar plan.
In springtime you will migrate,
but I’m stuck in Japan.
(Words and photos by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson. The meter is a bit strange. The first line of each stanza should be read as a spondee + an anapest: BUM BUM ba ba BUM. The second line is catalectic or headless iambic meter, meaning the first unstressed syllable has been dropped. The last two lines are normal iambic meter, though the third line ends with an unstressed syllable, known as a “weak” or “feminine” ending… though “To be or not to be, that is the question” technically qualifies by this standard as “weak” and “feminine” so… yeah.)