Mountain Bluebird

Born
Outdoors
Never caged
Mountain bluebirds
Overhear children wishing they could fly

From a low branch in a giant oak tree
One turns his head
Cautiously
Watching
Us

Once
The kids
Run away
He sings sweetly
Reminding me how it feels to be free

Mountain bluebird perched on an oak tree near a bird box at University of California, Davis, Arboretum

Written for W3 Prompt #34: Wea’ve Written Weekly by The Skeptic’s Kaddish, in response to Dream Seeds by D. Avery

Form: Tetractys

From Shadow Poetry:

Tetractys, a poetic form invented by Ray Stebbing, consists of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). Tetractys can be written with more than one verse, but must follow suit with an inverted syllable count. Tetractys can also bereversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Double Tetractys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1

Triple Tetractys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10

and so on.

“Euclid, the mathematician of classical times, considered the number series 1, 2, 3, 4 to have mystical significance because its sum is 10, so he dignified it with a name of its own – Tetractys. The tetractys could be Britain’s answer to the haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables.” – Ray Stebbing

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