A Bird And Me And The Shadow

A Bird And Me And The Shadows

I stay in the shadows, thick and dark
and wait to watch
a bird arrive on timid wings,
an exotic bird from another climate.
To see it, I would gladly go all the way
to the country where it dwells.
Here in my region I just walk
some deserted lane
and come to a spot and stop,
breathlessly.

There behind the wall I hear
the hushed waves of the sea rise and fall,
and I feel the silence at the bird's source,
the rhythm of the ebbing and the rising tides which cradle the bird in a gentle sway.
And there is no other bird I know
who can open my heart's dark door
and enter softly to alight on my floor.

I am not a hunter after birds,
just a patient lover,
in a slow movement, not to scare
the bird with a vision of heaven.
Birds, each one of them,
knows when he or she is loved.
They know it in the silence,
the slowness of your movement,
they know how close they might come
and from how far they must fly;
and they never speak
unless their spirit moves.

Respect their dignity, respect
the silence and fear.
Their flight is to a remote place,
on tired wings and precarious balance.

Sushama Karnik

Tanya Dimitrova originally shared the image

shadows