A Lover's Fable
        (feathers, 1991)

I saw him in the air, his wings as red
           as a British soldier’s coat
           at the charge
                             of the Light Brigade.
I watched him dance along the branches
           of the big pecan,  
           taunting the mockingbird  
                          with martial song and trill.
Summer-full of himself, brisk cockaded head
           alert for squirrel and cat--
Until that frantic afternoon I found him
           dragging one wing along the ground,
            feathers crumped into dusty pink,
                  victim of some unknown aggression.
I gently lifted himAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            his heart beating against my palm
            like a tiny drumAAAAAAAAAA
            and carried him home with me
                     to a painted cage.

Time went by and his wing seemed
            as strong as ever.
But I loved my redbird, and when once or twice
            he sang to me,
I could not bear to open the cage and see him
           disappear into the endless sky.
I knew I could not keep him with me forever,
           but I could not bear to let him go.
“You are crippled,” I said to myself,
           “You cannot fly, Brightwing Bird,
            and what would you do without me?

The weeks passed, the months -- a lifetime
            to a small caged songbird
            who once had exalted in his freedom.
“Let him go!” my friends told me, AAAAAA
            but, oh, it was so sweet to have
            this exotic being for me alone!
One day I saw the mockingbird flick
            past the window,
and I went to the porch and opened
           the door of the painted cage.
The cardinal fluttered past meAAAAAAAAA
           to the railing, testing his wings,
           lifting them to the leaf-tattered sunlight.
Then, in a joyous burst of motion, he raised himself
           into the cool clean sky of morning
           and flew away from me.

Once I was like that cardinal. AAAAAAAAAAA
           I too was hurled to the ground,  
           left stunned and vulnerable, AA
           lost to my element.AAAAAAA
We were from such different worlds; AAAAAAAAAAA
           yet, when you found me, you lifted me tenderly,
           took me away from remembered pain
                      and put me in a cage
                      of words. AAAAAA
“You can no longer fly,” you said, AAAAAAAAAAAA
          “Your wings won’t hold you.
Besides, I want you here, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
           with me.”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Until, one day, through carelessness, or guilt
         . . . or indifference,
         you left the cage door open
         and I found my strength AA
                                 and flew away.