"The Song of Stationary Nathan" by Eric McHenry, Guest Contest Judge

The Song of Stationary Nathan

Eric McHenry

AfterYeats

"Berry" Watercolor & Acrylic on Paper
by J. Artemus Gordon

I went out to the maple tree

because a riot was in its head,

and flung a Frisbee at the noise,

but brought a starling down instead,

and laid it in a shoebox nest,

and put some twigs and Skittles in,

and struggled up, and set it back

where I imagined it had been.

As I was shinnying down, I felt

a Skittle windfall on my head.

A skinny girl in red capris

was pelting me with green and red.

She swung her legs and laughed my name,

then disappeared into the crown.

I followed her until the swaying

and broken sunlight brought me down.

Though I am old with waiting here,

and she has grown up and away,

I’ll watch the tossing of those boughs

and catch her silhouette someday,

and we’ll walk lightly up the boughs,

and gather, in eternal June,

the Nilla Wafers of the sun,

the Necco Wafers of the moon.

Poet’s Notes: I love Yeats’ “The Song of Wandering Aengus” so much that I decided to write it again, or to translate it from English into English. 

Editor’s Note:  Yeats’ poem may be found here https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/song-wandering-aengus. “The Song of Stationary Nathan” was first published in Salamander.  

Artist's Note:  Poeticize the rainbow.  Taste the rainbow.