Mockingbird

by Wyn Cooper

The mockingbird is doing the car
alarm in full shrill, so hard
on my ears I cover them.

Then it does my dog who died
two years ago, my life
a steep slope down since then. 

The bird knows all the begs and barks
in proper order. When I start
to cry it does too, but louder.

It imitates the sound I make
when I’m sorry so perfectly
I fall deep in my recliner.

It teaches me something I didn’t know:
how pitiful I sound, how low.

 

Wyn Cooper is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Postcards from the Interior. His second CD with Madison Smartt Bell, Postcards Out of the Blue, was released earlier this year. (7/2008)