A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies by James Bond

I like my birds
like I like my coffee

tall throbbing erect and choosy
Mary and Vincent Price choosy
like in the Come into the kitchen
Cookbook

with Perch in Sour Cream
which makes me scream
when Vincent or Mary says

"Cream Corn Tiki overboard"
and some brown bodies go flying through the air
like missiles

hollow head bongos signalling
the Roman bonfires along the Jamaican
estate of Goldeneye
where Noel Coward's ghost
goes pinching bird's bottoms
and taking muddled limes
from their roppy choppy weavy walleys
Vincent or Mary
in their cooking robes

long feathered negress in the coffee field
sacrificing to the flying centipede god
whose long-haired face blur is fringed in tallow candles
whose big knuckled foot palp mirrors are shaggy afro cones
whose vibrating cheekbone cabinets
are full of Caesar salad and Macaroni dandy
like missiles
of yellow perch in Cream Corn Tiki Overboard
Mary and Vincent Price

setting the table
for Tongan Royalty

Huge people
really huge people
inside the moon
their bodies home to trillions of birds

James Bond opening his letter
from Ian Fleming
taking out the 1 dollar bill

dance hall
birds
at the ready