The Third Fruit is a Bird is my third collection of poetry. It’s a 24-page chapbook with a nifty transparent flyleaf thingy.
It was published in December 2008 by the fine folk at Picaro Press, who were incredibly supportive and generous in letting me have my way pretty much wholesale with the cover design.
Poems included in this collection include “Spider-Sense”, “You Should Have Killed the Monkey First”, “Mothwing Kiss”, “Pissing off Ezra”, “Infinity Plus One” and “Advice no. 34″. A lot of them are about superheroes and love, sometimes both.
The cover was designed by my most excellent brother, Hugh Ford, who has his own website celebrating his artistic endeavours.
If you rely on others’ opinions to formulate your own, you might be interested that Gem from Grace Notes, once said “Adam Ford’s The Third Fruit Is A Bird is a charming little work.” and “Ford is writing the light hearted ditties that I’d love to be able to write.”
You can buy a copy of The Third Fruit is a Bird for $A5.00 over in the shop, or simply by clicking on the “Add to Cart” button underneath the cover image.
And here’s a sample poem:
Mothwing Kiss
I dreamed the kiss of moth wings on my cheek
and woke to find a pair against my back,
each one an inch above my shoulderblade,
each one as soft as breath against my skin.
I stood. The tips reached almost to my waist.
I felt a strength beneath their velvet touch.
I felt a little strange next morning as
I dressed before the mirror in my room
and watched their pattern shifting in the light,
and watched them with my head turned as I flexed
and spread them out as wide as they would go,
then tucked them back to run along my spine,
then tucked them in my shirt to hold them close
beneath my clothes. I kept them to myself
all day at work, a secret from the world.
All day at work I felt them there, their warmth.
They trembled in their hiding-place as soft
As moonlight, curving snug against my back.
As moonlight filters through the evening air
some instinct makes them strain against my shirt
Insisting that I take myself outside
Insisting that I spread them wide apart,
Stand naked to the waist in evening air,
Embrace the gentle pulling of the moon,
Embrace the wind, the night and all the stars,
Stand tiptoe as my wings begin to stir
Not lifting me, but lightening my step.
Not lifting me, but strong enough to make
me stand a little taller than I would,
enough to give my back a straighter line,
enough to make the shadow that I cast
look like the man that I would like to be:
a man with wings beneath a cloudless sky.
Other poems from The Third Fruit is a Bird can be found within the “The Third Fruit is a Bird” category.
