He is toeing ballerina-style
spinning his feathered skirt
like a top
The stage has been cleared
and the audience is perched
on an overhanging branch
perhaps sitting in rows of folding chairs
set up for the séance
No deep-throated calls
but cooing expected platitudes
sound bites
It's all in the length and curl of tail feathers
Spin Spin Spin
Make them dizzy
Make them quiver with anticipation
Explode into a sunburst of colors smiles
And that's where the resemblance ends
The Carola Parotia* plunges into his performance
with the wildest abandon
exposing pale flanks skinny legs
The Candidatus presidentialis
can't afford such candor
What unsightly features
might he be hiding
under his manicured flight feathers
* Bird of Paradise
Marcelle Kasprowicz was born in Niort, France. She received an M.A. from UT at Austin and is an Austin resident. She writes in English and French and also translates her French poems in English. In 2001 she was awarded first prize for her poem "House of Bones" in the Austin International Poetry Festival Anthology. She has had her poems published in Ascent, Aspiration, Farfelu, The Texas Poetry Calendar, the AIPF Anthologies, Gival Press, Languageandculture.net (on line). She is the author of Organza Skies, a book of poems about the Davis Mountains of West Texas, published in 2005.