By Pavel Chichikov
The creeper is a small brown bird
That climbs the trees like mercury,
Except it is not temperature
That draws the creeper upward slowly
Beak a tweezers and a lance
It leans against a stiffened tail,
Spiraling from base to branch
It searches for its food by Braille
Between the wrinkles and within
The bark it seizes with its beak
Beetle grubs, and spiders, ants,
And other kinds of insect meat
I saw it on a winter day
Laborious go up an oak,
Methodical and patiently
Probe and listen, probe and poke
When it grappled up one tree
It fluttered to another base
To climb again like mercury –
An angel on a rough staircase
(See Pavel's new book, Mysteries and Stations, here.)
