Ruby Throated Moses

          When my eye caught the green surprise
of a hummingbird inside the dim garage,
          like a brooch pinned against the sheetrock wall, 

I canted open the creaking garage door 

          and tossed him back to blinding summer life. 

He spiraled into brilliance, out of sight. 

          When Michelangelo struck Moses’ knee 

and shouted at him, “Speak!,” the chisel made 

          a dent. But Moses kept his glaring silence. 

And yet, through the statue’s marble hair, a wildness 

          stuck out two ridged horns and spoke.

“Let this be light,” it said. “Let this be light.”

--Mark Jarman (1952- ), multiple award-winning New Formalist American poet, and emeritus Centennial Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, from The Heronry: Poems, 2017.