POETRY-February Special Wedding Issue 2012
Poem by Melissa Crowe
Edited by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
Artwork by Brittany Lawrance

Hummingbird, 2011, watercolor, 7″ x 12″

“Epithalamium with Humming Bird”

Naked as a joy-
bird I feel the danger
of this happy day

(like the lost
periwinkler—pocketfuls
of petals and

peril, somewhere
he is bones
and the flowers

silt—show me
one thing outside
the hothouse

that will live
till spring) and still
I dip my slight

beak into
nectar, a blur
of blood with

wings, I swallow
these sweet, these
disappearing things.

_______________

Melissa Crowe on “Epithalamium with Humming Bird”: “A friend sent me a newspaper clipping that mentioned a ‘lost periwinkler,’ and though this poor soul was most likely gathering mollusks by the seashore, I imagined a wanderer found with pockets full of the tiny purple-blue flowers.

Throughout the spring of 2012, Maine magazine will work in conjunction with students studying illustration at the Maine College of Art. MECA student Brittany Lawrance says of her experience making this illustration: “What struck me about this poem was the ambivalence we all feel when making life decisions and embarking on new journeys.”