Hummingbird

Hummingbird,
what’s the word?
I’ve memorized the tune.
The sunlight sings
with your shimmering wings
all summer afternoon.

All afternoon,
I hear your tune,
and soon I see you near.
A flickering flash--
you dart and you dash,
and then you disappear.

I’ll never know
just where you go
or when you will return.
I need you so,
for your faithful glow
is a spark that will always burn.

Oh, how you hum and how you hover!
You dive, you dip, and you recover--
each sip a celebration.
It isn’t a note
from your emerald throat.
It’s your singular vibration.

Suspended there before my face,
you are a jewel in a case--
a gift from sky to earth.

Hummingbird,
with every word,
I wonder at your worth.