Pigeons masquerade as doves
with a cat-o-nine-thousand-tails 
rapping at a child's heart.

Screen doors, bent inward,
buckle under summer stress,
the wire fishnet, filtering pheromones,
from the sweat on my brow.

The hummingbirds, meld
with surround sound
and the tiny pattering
of feet in my afterthoughts,

I'm reminded of stories
of old dogs and learned tricks,
I sniffle a near-weeping gasp
as these feelings are intaglioed
into my stony floodgates

as they burst...