Metamorphous: Birds

Egrets, by Karen Fleming (2007)

If I could

I would fly south now

following some ancient call

Leaving all familiar

For the uncharted

unexpected and

unfamiliar.

Flap wings and take flight

Is all that need be done

Fledglings nest and morning song

Abandoned for the journey

Taken with the flock

Yet yearned for so intimately

On the line above the house

where the tabby cat wanders

and the boy with the BB gun

fires without aim

Watch the foreigner

imprisoned thus

Sing songs they taught him

Mimic their words

The line remains empty

I no longer come here

What happened a long time ago

Plays out in present tense

Look up you won’t see me

We have passed the river

and we follow the sun

You failed to notice

until far too late

So you wait

for springtime

And expect my return

Keep watching the sky

There’s nothing I can promise

Once, a long time ago,

you playfully shot random darts

Aroused by mindless amusements

Today a dart struck a target

Unmeant, and yet oozing with intent,

filled with meaning, cruelly callous,

A black dart you had held up

and called white to my very face.

I cannot dodge a truth forever

I have to land sometime

Some other distant place

where the promise of flowers

and the taste of raindrops

is still understood.