Runner Up: Red-Shafted Northern Flicker

earth flings

vowels of surprise

through my throat

at a wing’s flicker

tree-percussion

too is my song –

wika-wika

flick, flick

red-wing shafts

black-barred

kyeer kyeer

hear

here

here

CITATION FROM SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA

I liked the sounds in this poem. I like the way it trusts language to be its own sound. It doesn't matter if we’ve ever seen a living creature because the sound of one is proof, and enough.