Untitled - Azam Abidov - poet and translator

CAROL MOLDAW
Carol Moldaw is the author of four books of poetry, The
Lightning Field, which won the 2002 FIELD Poetry Prize, Through
the Window, Chalkmarks on Stone, and Taken from the River, as well
as a novel, The Widening. Her work is published widely in journals,
including AGNI, Antioch Review, Boston Review, Chicago Review,
Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, FIELD, The New Republic, The
New Yorker, The Paris Review, Parnassus, Threepenny Review,
and Triquarterly. It has also been anthologized in many venues,
including Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, and Under 35:
A New Generation of American Poets. A recipient of a Lannan
Foundation Marfa Writer’s Residency, an NEA Creative Writing
Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize, Moldaw lives outside of Santa
Fe, New Mexico with her husband and daughter.
Timetable for Birds
Days I’ve spent brooding over this timetable--
a schedule for birds I can’t identify
in Kansas City, a place I’ve never been.
According to it, a cedar waxwing’s routine
is irregular, but a catbird can be clocked:
arrival 4:30, departure 9:25 (date unspecified).
Where the birds come from--where the birds go--
vagaries of wind--velocity--fate--how much
food (sleep) they need--are matters the timetable
doesn’t address. Even what’s relatively simple,
like who choreographs the interplay
of multiple flight paths across the sky,
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