Great arrestive Goldfinch,

What are we to wonder?

Where did you retrieve

That gold which you plundered?

By flap or by flutter,

Unruffled, serene,

You endure the unfolding

Of a heavenly dream.

Past dreams made trial

Of that appreciable feat.

What wonder engendered

Your life-given tweet?

That power in the sky;

That’s how you were done.

Neatly worn upon the face

You wear a mask of the sun.

Speared through by that beak,

If from heaven It spied,

God would reach for that sun

But place it back in the sky.

Darkness betwixt light,

That power now faded;

God brings to the earth

A goldfinch which is jaded.

Great arrestive Goldfinch,

What are we to wonder?

Where did you retrieve

That gold which you plundered?

By flap or by flutter,

Unruffled, serene,

You endure the unfolding

Of a heavenless dream.

A.C. Stark

© Copyright of A.C. Stark