Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Trollbird

I

Among twenty reasonable comments,   

The only livid thing   

Was the caw of the trollbird.   

II

I was of three minds,   

Like a blog

In which there are three trollbirds.   

III

The trollbird whirled in the autumn winds.   

It was a small part of the pantomime.   

IV

A man and a man pretending to be a woman   

Are one.   

A man and a man pretending to be a woman and a trollbird   

Are one.   

V

I do not know which to prefer,   

The banality of congruent discourse

Or the beauty of innuendoes,   

The trollbird ROFLMFAO’ing

Or just after.   

VI

Libertarians filled the long comments section

With barbaric glass.   

The shadow of the trollbird   

Crossed it, to and fro.   

The mood   

Traced in the shadow   

An indecipherable cause.   

VII

O thin men of Webdom,   

Why do you imagine golden birds?   

Do you not see how the trollbird   

Walks around the feet   

Of the earnest among you?   

VIII

I know noble accents   

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;   

But I know, too,   

That the trollbird is involved   

In what I know.   

IX

When the trollbird was banned,   

It marked the edge   

Of one of many circles.   

X

At the sight of trollbirds   

Remarking in a green mood,   

Even the bawds of euphony   

Would cry out sharply.   

XI

Wieseltier rode over Connecticut   

In a glass coach.   

Once, a fear pierced him,   

In that he mistook   

The shadow of his equipage   

For trollbirds.   

XII

The book has four-and-a-half stars.   

The trollbird will be flying soon.   

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.   

It was snowing   

And it was going to snow.   

The trollbird signed on
With a fresh user-name.