This poem of mine appeared in the Canadian Writer's Journal, June 2002 issue. It and another poem of mine, "I Hear Death" will be printed in Nancy Purnell's LUNATIC CHAMELEON. There's a lot of good poetry at Nancy's website , check it out.

Let My Words Take Wing
By Steve Vernon

Writers have to sell to live -
this is truth, or so I'm told
but the moment you believe this lie
is the moment you begin to die

Take a look at sparrows
squatting on hydrowires
like so many feathered clothespins
indifferent to the megavolts
of stolen river current
winding through their brittle feet

That's art:
independence of existence
indifference to power
and if you're lucky, wings.