(I try to remember the exact birdsong I'd hear along the Mississippi, the Lake street choir
calling from the riverbank all the way to Mercado Central)

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It wouldn't be true or good
to say that coffee was always sweet
and the cyphers' rhymes boasted imminent success--
sometimes both were acidic.

But it isn't true or good, 
to say that anything is always true or good
and a deviation from trueness and goodness, 
isn't bad.

and no matter the trueness or goodness
(and whoever charges themselves with these calculations)

this uprising
this revolution
is the new song. 
the lakes have thawed,
the river flows,
birds sing their chorus.
harmonizing with the chants, 
the taut muscles and raw power,

Both flocks move with purpose,
as they have weathered worse.
Both flocks persist in this great migration
driven both by the environment,
and the inherent need to survive.

JUNE 2020