Rim Country Gazette

   RIM COUNTRY POETRY   

A statue in Bonaventure Cemetary in Savannah, Ga.

became famous as a result of a book and movie:

"In the Garden of Good and Evil."

It was later moved to a museum in a neighbor county. 

The Bird Girl of Savannah

By Noble Collins

“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time”

John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

For years, among the ancient oaks,
you danced your chaste ballet

to silent music -
your lithe Glissade unseen
beyond the reach of Bonaventure.

With each demure Plie,
gray ringlet curtains of old moss

made way
in glad anticipation of your entrance on the stage.

A place of long forgotten life briefly heartened,
stirred for a moment

thrilled to Terpsichore
as your unfettered dance

breathed sweet warm youth to old earth.

A gentle curtsy, then, you made
to faint applause of Live Oak leaves,
as Tybee’s breezes rustled through the wood.

But on a day when you were resting,
hushing secret longings from dark vaults,
they captured you and gave you to the crowd -

bound those dainty feet,
and placed you on the cover of a book,

an icon for a sordid tale.

Soon, came leering groups

to gawk and whisper, trespass sacred grounds,

so you were moved,

no longer Chatham’s ward but Telfair’s,

behind museum walls

And here, in cold beauty,

resigned,

obliging,

poised in First Position

you wait for new music. 

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