Dianne Silvestri’s poems have been published in Earth’s Daughters, The Comstock Review, The Pharos, The Somerville Times, Evening Street Review, Steam Ticket, Boston Literary Magazine, Apeiron Review, Blast Furnace, and The Healing Muse. Her work also appears in two anthologies: Joys of Eating and paniK: Candid Stories of Life Altering Experiences Surrounding Pregnancy.

Dianne Silvestri.

From Cover of Trees

I count twenty-five
spilling from cover of trees
to strut the grass splay-toed
toward the woods in back,

their pomp high-stepping, puny nose cones
pumping forward and back
as if sawing to pull big bodies,
their red wattles swinging, raucous

gobbles clattering as they sweep
the shrubs with witch-broom tails.
A brown checked fowl leads three
in training to tick their toes

right up the steps to my deck
to huff up to roost on the banister.
The queen blusters, flopping
toward the table, alights

on the umbrella spire, teetering
like an oversized weathervane.
What do their bead eyes see?
What do their bird brains think?

I aim my camera barrel
through double glass and trigger
scatter of the weighty matron
and her junior entourage.

Am I invading their world
or are they trespassing mine?
Who has violated whom?

— Dianne Silvestri

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