Blackbird, by Jonel Abellanosa

The Day Before Heaven and Hell, by Jean Vengua (USA). Contemporary. Click image for artist site.

Blackbird
        
Sound was nonexistent.

“Tree” or “hill” or “mountain” were ideas
in God’s mind. The creative urge shaded
with blues. “Flower” and “leaf” were light’s
saplings, which upon command went wild,
divine desire for company spindly
as needles. Millennia later, man’s
self-extensions grew black as greed.

Let there be light was a thought
that sounded good. Light neither
from the sun nor the moon, but the ray
of love from God’s heart. Light remained
for three days. Then the tree, the hill
and the mountain formed. Heaven still
the background. Blue until today.

The Earth’s bowel had to be carved
and abyss was a thought. A hunch.
Sufferings would be black as pines,
pains red as shadows before dawn.
Hell’s hole had to be dug, before
the blackbird resisting God’s
thirteen ways of looking

created the first sounds with its song

Jonel Abellanosa

Jonel Abellanosa resides in Cebu City, the Philippines. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including Rattle, Poetry Kanto, Anglican Theological Review, Mojave River Review and Star*Line. His poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Dwarf Stars award. His fourth chapbook, Songs from My Mind’s Tree, has been published in early 2018 by Clare Songbirds Publishing House (New York), which will also publish his full-length collection, Multiverse, in late 2018. His poetry collection, Sounds in Grasses Parting, is forthcoming from Moran Press.