The birds have come and
taken the love for you
I carried like a stolen treasure.
They flew just over my head
as I walked on the dawn beach
and so softly I almost
did not notice them. Two sparrows,
was it? or perhaps two
finches, their red polls
the badge of the heart. I had
only a moment to think.
I had been watching herons,
those long-legged fishers,
stalk the incoming tide.
Longing with its load
of incessant possibility
had entered my heart. Sunrise had made
a prism of the sky. Then,
shadows, phrases, sibilants
of words above my head.
Startled, I looked up
and heard, echoing in
the draft of their wings,
We have taken
your burden from you.
You are free.
I walked on, bereft and blessed,
light-headed, my heart
beating and only that.
Published in The Blue Sofa Review