Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Irrational Optimism















Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser, fledgling eastern phoebe

I am a nestling eastern phoebe
perched upon the edge
of the moss-lined mud cup
that is the only home I’ve ever known.

Here, under the roof eves
of the tattered house,
sixteen days have passed
since my egg-tooth
sliced open a world of possibility.

I have grown large in my dreaming
and this womb-bowl too small –

Feted on juicy vain insects,
my plump pin-feathered siblings
and I hunger for
more.

The sky is large and come-hither blue.

I know nothing of the experience
of flight,
but it consumes my definition
of self in entirety.

The distance between here
and the nearest tree is great.

The distance between here
and the rock-hard ground is great.

There are four cats below.
Three of them have been calculating.

I am on the edge.

I am the embodiment of
irrational optimism.

*

And I am flying.

© 2011-2019/Jamie K. Reaser
Published in "Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life" and 
"Wild Life: New and Selected Poems" 

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