His Noble Numbers
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Backyard Drama The neighbors sneer, but she’s defiant, continues to feed the raccoon nightly, the possum, and the rabid lonely fox who show up darkly apologetic, sick for love. That’s when the moon shimmers everything in soft, romantic light. No such theater in full sun when all the birds appear, the wren and sparrow, cardinal, and jay. At noon comes her favorite rogue, the one who stopped an August day to steal her heart— a road runner, skinny as a twig and mindless in his dominance of the molting yard. She didn’t mind the occasional finch he ate, but one brown afternoon he grabbed a prize, the only parakeet, and bashed its beady head on the flat patio rocks, beat it dead. She ran for her broom, but the rogue-bird flew its bounty to a neighbor’s eave to eat in peace and spit green feathers on the tearful matron down below. Funny how abuse comes home to roost. Her tightened heart tries to forgive, but the dainty thrust of hate will not let go. She glowers every time the brat arrives for lunch. No wild parakeets have filtered lately to her yard— word gets around. She daily shovels scraps and seeds into bottomless feeders for grateful ones unaware they could be next.
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About the Book
His Noble Numbers collects new poems from George Klawitter’s most recent work and a few poems written fifty years ago. The themes focus on nature, memory, and the human condition. Some of the poems are evocative of important world events, but most of the poems commemorate people and events close to the author. The forms are often tight, including several sonnets and a sestina, but meter is more often free flowing, carrying the natural rhythms of conversation. Many of the poems reflect Texas, especially the Texas Hill Country, where the author has spent the last seventeen years of his life.
About the Author
George Klawitter teaches literature at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. He has edited the poetry of Richard Barnfield and published The Enigmatic Narrator, a study of John Donne’s poetry. His poems have been printed in various journals including The James White Review, Poetry Northwest, Poet Lore, Evergreen Chronicles, Milkweed, and Cumberland Poetry Review. His first book of poetry, Country Matters, appeared in 2001. His book Let Orpheus Take Your Hand won the Gival Press Poetry Award in 2002.