Dark Companions

A flutter of something far away
a city a star whose own wings interrupt its light
a variation suggesting a dark companion

And here is the kingfisher
dark star itself not fifty yards off flickering
above itself seeing through glitter to the minnow

Yesterday on the anniversary of Nylon
Ganymede was described in new photos
as looking like thin ice

a place where you skate alone at great risk
where you see ghost shapes in the greeny glaze
Below you history is described as panorama

but experienced as single poignancies
discrepancies probably not to be resolved
But I hate to say never

hate to say a feather is like dead hair
to stand back and see less detail than before
I know they have thumbs and fingers

the birds variously interrupting the planets
the cities whose ribs open to the twin tricksters
day and night

I know any minute a thrasher
standing on the frozen birdbath will try drinking
with the gauzy bird beneath it