Joe Dolce: ‘Quetzal’ and ‘Bell and gong’

Quetzal

Resplendent Quetzal:
Pharomachrus mocinno
(brilliant tail feather).
Fourteen-inch Mexican,
with a twenty-five-inch plume,
iridescent green suggesting
spring plant growth.

Seven-ounce colourful head puffball,
diet of frog & small wild avocado,
the latter swallowed whole,
regurgitated pits dispersing trees.

Sexually dimorphic females abandoning
young, leaving them to males,
birdsong a treble kyow (like a whimpering pup),
venerated divine by Mayans & Aztecs.

The snake god Quetzalcoatl took its name,
god of wind, goodness, light.
Legend says it sang beautifully, before Conquistadors.
Silent ever since but will resume once land is free.

A crime to kill them.
Remarkable for suicide soon after caged.
Symbol of liberty, abbreviated GTQ
—the currency of Guatemala.

Joe Dolce

Bell and gong

Morning 5 am church bell.
Forge-hammered harmonies wake
workers of Hanoi to buy and sell
near the old French church
on Hoan Kiem Lake.

A more ancient chime closes the day,
thinnest metal of iron gong,
music predating Christ’s ray,
beyond language—
the common people’s song.

Joe Dolce