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One\u2026 or The Other<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2026how feisty and pugnacious hummingbirds are.<\/em><\/p>\n — Ohio Department of Natural Resources<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On<\/em>e: Of hummingbirds,<\/p>\n loveliest of the summer,<\/p>\n beauty of the free<\/p>\n flying within the space<\/p>\n of their so little life,<\/p>\n I sing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wanderers of<\/p>\n the very clear, clean,<\/p>\n purpose of the<\/p>\n nature of themselves\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Other<\/em>: … pugnacious wee ones,<\/p>\n battering and battling<\/p>\n down a course of sure intent<\/p>\n to displace, turf, and set upon,<\/p>\n launch against and fight,<\/p>\n no respite. If they were big<\/p>\n as life\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One<\/em>: \u2026 the very miracle<\/p>\n and mystery of it,<\/p>\n the perfect touch of<\/p>\n splendor upon the landscape life of it;<\/p>\n the glory burnished in<\/p>\n the zunzun flight of it\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Othe<\/em>r: … holding to the surface<\/p>\n to bedraggle down all truth<\/p>\n now pummeled by their fights;<\/p>\n the nastiness of beak,<\/p>\n the proboscis most ferocious,<\/p>\n the tune and tenor of a fractious flight<\/p>\n — all worthy of a bad child’s<\/p>\n book of beasts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this our time,<\/p>\n they are a hot pepper warning<\/p>\n to our kind;<\/p>\n nasty little warriors,<\/p>\n with their snarled habits<\/p>\n running down the heart’s<\/p>\n cramped flow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One<\/em>: Come now.<\/p>\n Some things are better left<\/p>\n to the unspoken,<\/p>\n and to the forever caught<\/p>\n of the forever flying<\/p>\n in time\u2019s hover;<\/p>\n the way the hummer<\/p>\n stays itself in stilly flight,<\/p>\n a beauty\u2014<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Other<\/em>: — or aggression\u2019s ugly truth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Barbara Lightner<\/strong> is a prize-winning poet who has appears in Rabbit, Front Porch Review, Verse Wisconsin, Poesia<\/em> and OccuPoetry<\/em> among others. She has published three chapbooks through Book Barrow Publishing. She currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One\u2026 or The Other \u2026how feisty and pugnacious hummingbirds are. — Ohio Department of Natural Resources One: Of hummingbirds, loveliest of the summer, beauty of the free flying within the space of their so little life, I sing. Wanderers of the very clear, clean, purpose of the nature of themselves\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8370"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8372,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370\/revisions\/8372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}