Into.

The ONLY WAY of LOOKING at a BIRD

( "...it is an astonishment to be alive, and it behoves you to be astonished..." John Donne )

she looked at the bird

with all of her self

as if by some alchemy

of thought

she flew into

its shape

as it became the air

her mind opening

its wings

to the sky

the house now

a little blue egg

far far below her

her voice curving

into a beak

that flung its being

into the song

of self

scrawled across

a sky

becoming sunset

so that

becoming human

again

was a grief

that could only be

expressed

in birdsong.

Donall Dempsey