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.
With a fresh user-name.