Thursday, December 16, 2010

Blue Feathers





















Holding ever so tentatively the Blue Jay feather
in the casual stream of afternoon sunlight,
I turn it back and forth
contemplating Truth.

No pigment,
only what eye and brain
conspire to See.

Blue.

Not at all blue.

What else is boldly portraying itself
with confident illusion?

Tucking the feather behind my
right ear
draws out the impish, giggling
little tom girl of me.

Oh how she loves to play
with feathers!

And I watch her there
sitting on grass,
twirling plumes in feral rays

and I begin to count
the culturally-refracted fallacies that
she has been bottle fed:

“Silence is rewarded.”

“Boys are more important.”

“Normalcy is a requisite for love.”

“Profit should trump passion.”

“You can only love one.”

When did we all stop suckling
on the nipple of Authenticity?

Why were our rattles taken away
before we could fully embody
our own unique rhythm
into the world?

How come we learned to scream
“No! No! No!”
before being invited to play
in the joy bubbles of
“YES! YES! YES!”…?

I join her on the manicured lawn,
letting my clothed buttocks settle onto
ground that once had a different
perspective on what it was right to grow.

Drawing her into my lap with a smile
and nurturing embrace,

I whisper The Secret of Life into her left ear:

“Hold your beliefs loosely,

and always test them in the Light.”

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author
Published in "Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out" 

Note: Blue jay feathers do not contain blue pigment. The impression of blue color results from the brain/eye processing of light refracted from the feathers.

2 comments:

  1. Someone said once - If it is persistent it must be an illusion. :)
    Beautiful words for left eared !

    ReplyDelete