I THOUGHT I COULD TALK TO BIRDS
And that the birds
were mirroring my words back to me.
I woke in the morning and thought I could speak
every word I had ever spoken
all the phrases we had ever said to each other.
Each bird had a different sound
but they were all mine.
I rushed to the window and looked out at the new green
to say yes. We are each other’s words.
But the cacophony sounded like a recording of laughing.
The chatter sounded like the golden recording
playing over and over again in space. We were listening.
We were all listening and asking Are you well?
Hello from the children of planet Earth.
I woke. I woke again. I rushed to the window.
I wanted to hear past the noise. I knew
it had all been said before, in a string
of exploding firecrackers, but I wanted to hear the words.
To know we were all birds.
(First published in the 2015 Issue of Saranac Review)