Hummingbird
One day in a lifetime
I saw one with wings
a pipesmoke blur
shaped like half a kiss
and its raspberry-stone
heart winked fast
in a thumbnail of a breast.
In that blink it
was around a briar
and out of sight, but
I caught a flash
of its brain
where flowers swing
udders of sweet cider;
and we pass as thunderclouds or,
dangers like death, earthquake, and war,
ignored because it’s no use worrying ….
By him I mean. Responsibility
Against the threat of termination
by war or other things
is given us as by a deity.
by Milton Acorn
from: Dig Up My Heart: Selected Poems 1952-83
McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1983. p.62.