Finding the Bird Skull in the Backyard
by Jacqueline West

Someday
says my five-year-old
we will all have birds on our shoulders

Some will be falcons
and some will be ravens
and some will be parrots or chickadees

and they will ride everywhere
with us, except when they fly up to watch
from above and come back to tell us what they’ve seen

This might be exactly
what we need—sharp eyes
on a pair of wings, giving us

all points of the compass at once
all signs of danger or sparkling treasure
all possible paths between two points

And even when
the birds are gone
says the five-year-old

we’ll still have them
because the parts we remember won’t leave
and we’ll make things that were alive

into new things that are alive
and anything that dies will come back
and hold on tight to us again.

from the latest Eye to the Telescope
http://eyetothetelescope.com/index.html

#poem #poetry #sfpoetry #literature