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Zips and Zooms

The hummingbird both zips and zooms
To search for nectar in the blooms
Of flowers that unfold in spring.
The hummingbird has peewee wings

And yet she moves with lightning speed.
Her eggs (like little jelly beans)
Are laid into her nest of moss
And twigs and spider silk, of course!

She feeds her babies bitty bugs
Like fruit flies and mosquitoes. (Ugh!)
Watch them dance and dart and dash,
Before they vanish in a flash!

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Gigi Ryan is a wife, mother, grandmother, and home educator. She lives in rural Tennessee.

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11 Responses

  1. Cheryl A Corey

    Lots of cute wordplay here, Gigi. “zips and zooms”; “peewee wings”; eggs compared to “jelly beans”; “babies bitty bugs”; and “dance and dart and dash”. Very nice.

    Reply
  2. Margaret Coats

    That “lightning speed” in their “zips and zooms” always catches my notice. And you re-emphasize it, Gigi, by having the babies “vanish in a flash.”

    Reply
  3. Paul Freeman

    A poem that’s as fun and zippy as it’s topic.

    Thanks for the read, Gigi.

    Reply
  4. Roy Eugene Peterson

    When I was stationed at Fort Huachuca in Southern Arizona, there was a place nearby, The Paton Center in Patagonia, that had dozens of species of hummingbirds that one could see. What beautiful colors and flashes. This is a massive bird sanctuary with 212 reported species. Your precious poem reminded me of spending a day there in awe.

    Reply
    • Russel Winick

      Roy – I’d enlist right now at age 70 if they would promise to send me there!

      Reply
  5. James Sale

    Very lovely – and I like the strong use of verbs in this poem. I am reminded too when I first saw a hummingbird – in Upper State New York, a magical moment.

    Reply
    • Julian D. Woodruff

      Thanks, Gigi, for a fitting tribute to one of the true wonders of the world.

      Reply
  7. Shamik Banerjee

    A delightful verse, Gigi! I like the poem’s ability to make any reader’s mood buoyant through its dancing words.

    Reply
  8. C.B. Anderson

    I haven’t yet written my hummingbird poem, and maybe now I won’t have to. They visit me every summer, and I always pay attention to the flowers they prefer. Occasionally one will perch on a stalk, which allows me to see its wings and not just a blur.

    Reply
    • Warren Bonham

      I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hummingbird at rest, and I never once stopped to consider what their eggs look like and where they lay them. I need to get outside more

      Reply

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