Taboo Against The Word Beauty, Answer Key Poem by Allen Braden

If a magpie alights on a snowdrift, is it only
half a bird? The answer the difference between
night/day. Bonus: a silhouette of said magpie
conjuring up one angelic/elegiac wingspan.

If a stand of rosehips seems a cathedral
to pheasant then hypothesize the fox
is hunting again. Rings on the raccoon tail,
around the pheasant throat, the blowfly thorax,

a pearl of gristle on the raptor beak or lastly
that blowfly burbling circles in a goblet
of poisoned wine … proof of life everlasting
or the difference between prophet/poet?

Thus truth, like beauty, may vary. Partial credit
for 'the soul is a hive whose honey will not last.'