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.