Rested, Unafraid

a typical Ohio midwinter morning

Photo by Ben Griffiths on Unsplash

The sun’s phosphorescence trudges
Quiet persistence its mode of work
Traversing endless cosmic cloud mountains
Our closest star finds a way
Reveals its gift to me daily
The perfect shade of grey
While dank bitter winds lash my bones
A typical Ohio midwinter morning

The trail is quiet today
A pale brown cardinal lands softly on a branch
Right next to my heart
And in a steady un-birdlike way
Rests, unafraid
Hints of color here and there reveal her given name
Bird eyes see me and I greet her

She is atypically unbusy
As if she
As if she just needs a rest
As if she just needs to rest and breathe
As if she just need to rest and breathe just one single, complete breath
Just this

A vacation from her vocation
Permission for a brief intermission
A brief reprieve before making her leave
From the bird life
For a season or a lifetime

We breathe the same air
The wind supports flight when skillfully surrendered to
In a slow silence we know each other
We are one and the same