Illusions by Alice Landrum

Illusions

“It’s life’s illusions I recall

I really don’t know life at all."

Joni Mitchell

I saw a summer tanager

or did I just see a mirage?

There was only a glimpse of red

on my left side as I walked

a tiny speck of color

shining between the green leaves.

A male indigo bunting

landed on the trail ahead

its rich blue feathers shimmering

against the gravel then gone.

I hear a pileated woodpecker,

the thunk of its beak against a tree.

The red-capped bird is not there

When I turn my head to see.

The birds never stay for long.

Always leaving me to wonder

did I really see that beautiful

bit of color or hear that song?

Alice Landrum’s fiction has been published in ignition literary Magazine, Medicine and Meaning, Potato Soup Journal, Round Table Literary Journal, Thieving Magpie, Penmen Review, and Well-Versed.A retired anesthesiologist, Alice received her MD at University of Arkansas School of Medicine and her MFA in writing at Lindenwood University.