The Owlet and the TurtleBy Greg Sendi
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Come up into my nesty bed,
the Owlet to the Turtle said.
Here will I feed you nuts and mice,
here cosset you in wings and twice
each day, at sunrise and at gloam,
lay kisses dewed with honeycomb
and stainy crush of thicket grape
upon your ancient leathery nape.
Here talon you behind the ears,
here hold your riddles years and years,
and guerdon you with balmy myrtle,
so fiercely do I love you, Turtle.
Together we may bless a nesty bed
the Owlet to her darling Turtle said.
In fervid yawp to roost above
rejoined the Turtle to his love:
Dear treasured caller, windfall Owl,
here overhear my rapt avowal
receive from quaggy mat below
my moon-rinsed consort song and know
but for your feathery sylvan art
(beloved, gaze in your own heart!)
no rest might mend the blemishes
that cram these shell-hulled premises,
no other soul my secrets keep.
Thus, straining as he might to leap
in turtle vaults toward the roost above,
rejoined the Turtle to his Owlet love.
the Owlet to the Turtle said.
Here will I feed you nuts and mice,
here cosset you in wings and twice
each day, at sunrise and at gloam,
lay kisses dewed with honeycomb
and stainy crush of thicket grape
upon your ancient leathery nape.
Here talon you behind the ears,
here hold your riddles years and years,
and guerdon you with balmy myrtle,
so fiercely do I love you, Turtle.
Together we may bless a nesty bed
the Owlet to her darling Turtle said.
In fervid yawp to roost above
rejoined the Turtle to his love:
Dear treasured caller, windfall Owl,
here overhear my rapt avowal
receive from quaggy mat below
my moon-rinsed consort song and know
but for your feathery sylvan art
(beloved, gaze in your own heart!)
no rest might mend the blemishes
that cram these shell-hulled premises,
no other soul my secrets keep.
Thus, straining as he might to leap
in turtle vaults toward the roost above,
rejoined the Turtle to his Owlet love.
(Originally published in Third Wednesday, vol. XIV, no. 3)
Greg Sendi is a writer from Chicago. In the past year, his work has appeared in a number of literary magazines including Apricity, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, The Briar Cliff Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Clarion, Great Lakes Review, The Masters Review, Plume, San Antonio Review, and upstreet among others. He is former fiction editor of Chicago Review. His career has included broadcast and trade journalism as well as poetry and fiction.