A Gray Billed Bird

Garden birds; one is lost in the garden shack—driving his short dark-gray beak into the window intensely. Twilight is right around the corner, and the bird senses it. He is striding the windowpane, behind the curtain in a near frantic walk, with jerking wings—integrates motions of concentration, fixed on this one escape route:  as I hear a yanking of feathers in the shack I go to investigate, see all this—, he lifts his head, hears me, then drives his gray to dark bill beak onto the window pecking at it as if this is his only way out. The whole body shakes; he doesn’t have sense enough to turnabout, and go back the way he came in—

       Calm, alert, keeping watch—my breath pauses as I reach to grab him, his legs kicking, wings flapping, with a swift motion, perfectly in rhythm I turnabout to face the ajar door, I let loose of my fingers, he hops out of my hand, flying out the door, the same way he had come in. I see him perched on top of the garden wall now, proud and triumphed (as twilight falls).

#3872 (4-23-2013)

Losing Sight (The Little Bird)

This week I felt like weeping when a big bird snatched up a Baby bird, for whatever purpose, out of my garden.

It’s natural I suppose, like the cry of an infant. There was no

Call from other birds, of danger—hidden in the Garden.

In life I can praise so many things. The loss of the baby bird

Didn’t feel right to me—I could have saved him, or perhaps she.

Why didn’t I? I was too busy taking a movie: in my delight, I lost sight, of a predator nearby.

Note: Inspired by the writings of Rumi, with a little influence on stanza structure.  The author would like to express, one can easily lose in his or her daily life, sight of their relationship with Christ, just as easily as taking your eyes off the bird.  #3993 (3-29-2013)