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Photo by bharath g s on Unsplash

Poetry | July/August 2020

How a Bird Carries

By Robin Turner

for Matthew

You were small then, a nestling
still snug in my arms. In the sky
a bird, birds, a great family, and you
would point a tiny finger out into the welcoming blue,
trying out all the names we had taught you—
tee! teee-ee!—you would call with your little bird mouth,
the word tree had become bird had become teee-ee!, wild
to wild, an animal psalm, the first prayer.
                                                 Oh, lost language
we all once knew—how a bird carries in its being nest
carries tree carries light into blue into sky, every name for home
all of a piece, one chord one chorus one sound.

Tagged: July/August 2020

2 replies on “How a Bird Carries”

Dana Kinseysays:
August 21, 2020 at 9:38 am

Loving and reverent. So beautiful.

Reply
DeVonne Whitesays:
September 2, 2020 at 11:15 am

Beautiful! <3

Reply

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