Hummingbird. English
name, American by birth.
They are flying jewels

in Spanish, a name
for eyes not ears, for motion -- 
bird watching for real.

Their hearts miniscule,
An infant's fingernail big.
Just 2,000,000 beats

is all that we have
to spend. Bacteria, worms,
tortoises, salmon,

butterflies, blue whales
all have chambers of some kind --
we all churn inside.

Blood pressure is good.
Deep red fluid rhythm through
each blessed bejeweled day. 


Written in community with VerseLove, a group of mostly educators writing a poem every day of April (National Poetry Month). The prompt for today: Rewrite a text you like in haiku. Here, Brian Doyle's Joyas Voladoras, which I've quoted at "We all churn inside".