The Button Game
Did you ever play with a singing button when you were little?
Find a big button with two holes (not four).
Mine was a heavy navy button
scavenged from Nana's old winter coat.
Cut an arm's length of package string,
thread it through the button holes.
Knot the string closed to make a loop.
Place the string between your hands,
the button sags in the middle.
Swing the button to start it.
You pull and pull.
The button's weight winds the string.
The pull and release on the string
makes your button sing.
***
Startling
After two storms in two weeks at the Jersey Shore,
After rough seas with nine foot waves and rip tides,
After booms pound the beach and shake our apartment,
After surf sprays over the top of 20 foot dunes,
After 40 knot gales & 60 knot gusts roar and claw,
After whistling slat windows keep us awake,
After daily whitecap rumble enters through the walls,
After a vacation of high wind, rain and drizzle,
The startling silence of the woods
when we get back home in October,
the soft hum of crickets in the grass,
and a touch of blue in clouds over the sun.
Hold up two hands in a cross,
now delete the "t"
and you get a "starling",
sky art in migration,
the rise and tumble of murmuration.
https://www.poetryh.com/F008JournalNews/0023.htm
Date Published: March 20, 2024