Pigeon in the Night

Description

Originally from Park River, North Dakota, Roland Flint was the author of eight collections of poems, including the 1990 National Poetry Series selection, Stubborn . He received a 1982 National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Discovery Grant from the same auspices in 1970. His work appeared in Triquarterly, Salmagundi, Poetry Northwest, Ohio Review , and The Atlantic , among other publications. He was professor of English at Georgetown University for 29 years and was on the teaching staff at Warren Wilson College and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. As Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1995 to 2000, he traveled to every county in the state, taking poetry into schools, prisons and hospitals. He died in 2001.Originally printed in 1991 by North Carolina Wesleyan College Press, Pigeon is now available in this eBook edition. Here are two Didn’t Know He Was until the day in New York CityWhen he’d left the rented nest & herHe’s often called a nest & was walking,Bad hungover from the pre-wedding bashTo his favorite Wolf’s (52nd & 7th)For bagel, egg & aspirin,And his path was blocked byPigeons & then just one,Fat, rumpled, grouchy, clumsy,And he & the pigeon didA little dance before findingThe paths around, & he thought,Oh God, I danced like that last nightAt the fancy dinner, dressed justLike a pigeon in the rented tux,Colliding with the bride’s mother,Saying some dumb pigeon-yiddish, & pigeonDancing, drunk & bumbling,Stumbling pigeon, plainAs pigeon.No Sooner Is PigeonComing back some from his loved friend’s death,Greeting the day again, scratching around, &News comes another old friend is dead,Bringing the year’s total to four from cancer alone.And so the pigeon flies northwest to be there,His heart aburst with emptiness to witnessHis poor old friend all dead & coffinedTo comfort as well as he can the widow & childTo carry his friend to the terrible holeTo eat & drink too much (with grief to blame it on)To visit his aging parentsTo take them out to dinnerTo cut his broken-wristed father’s steakTo stay two days & nights & mow his mother’s lawnTo speak carefully with them of the bereavedTo toss all night in the creaking bedIn which he was conceived.