If you spend enough time in Pasadena, you eventually spend time with parrots. They flock and squawk, and you watch and wonder: why are there parrots in Pasadena? Some might land in a fig tree, while some land on a nearby power line, one hanging upside down, apparently in a mood of “Why not?”
Poet Adrian Ernesto Cepeda, in “The Parrot Feral Queen,” brings us their jazz.
The Parrot Feral Queen
When they call my wife
resounding like a late
1965 Coltrane wailing
harmoniously intense sax
solo, so musical, the
way these Pasadena
parrots serenade mi
esposa, waiting to see
her strolling on the side
walk, her shoulder length
hair glowing in the after
noon SoCal summer sol—
this is the signal for a
Pandemonium of parrots
to gather floating,
Ascension flying both
directions at once while
finally, landing above her,
as she looks up, waving
to her favorite feathered
friends, acknowledging
their feral queen,
they honor this interplay
with harmonious beak croons
resounding all the love,
La Amor Supreme—
when they sing serenading
a sign from Colorado Blvd.
to Green Street these
Pasadena wonders,
they see the beautiful
that soars in you.
— Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is the author of Flashes & Verses… Becoming Attractions (Unsolicited Press), Between the Spine (Picture Show Press), Speaking con su Sombra (Alegría Publishing), and La Belle Ajar and We Are the Ones Possessed (both with CLASH Books). His poetry collection La Lengua Inside Me (FlowerSong Press) won Honorable Mention in The Juan Felipe Herrera Best Book Award at the 2024 International Latino Book Awards. Adrian lives with his wife in Los Angeles with their adorably spoiled cat Woody Gold.
Local News Pasadena (LNP) publishes poems grounded in current news events from the greater Pasadena, California area. Submit your own poetry here.
