George Fillingham
Photo: Sister72
“ . . . y en un abrir los ojos nos morimos.”*
Octavio Paz
I have raised robins, many thought abandoned. Many were.
I have raised them from what looked to be
A bundle of pin feathers and quills with bright wide beaks,
Or some naked but for hinted wings, bulged eyes.
All were hungry. I would buy bait worms, night crawlers.
I partly mash them with a knife blade, then I held the worm
Above the wobbly head until its hunger overcame its fear
And down the hatch: at least a dozen a day or more.
Distances between species, its and mine then disappeared.
The imprint took, and I became no more the shadow; I was
The light. I took it everywhere, to work, to eat. At home
It slept beside me. At work, I parked under a Bradford Pear.
The shade was cool. Before I took it in to work, I waited while
My robin listened to the other birds, the sparrows, other robins.
My robin loved the sunset from the egg, an instinct older than
The songs of birds. And after many bait boxes the speckled breast
Took on the ruddy, rusty, blood-of-Christ-at-Easter-ness, that red breast
Harbinger of spring, the cheeping wavers into something song like.
I recognize the time has come to let my robin go. I take my robin
To the park. I hold it on my open palm. It turns its head to look
At me, not bird to man, but child to father, eye to eye.
I see uncertainty, I feel anguish, a different fear of conscience.
My rescue grows distorted, my own compassion burns before my eyes.
I may have been mistaken. My robin is not ready for this or any world.
And yet it flies from my hand to perch high in a Sycamore,
Dark against a cloudy sky, a shadow in its element. I turn to leave.
But still I fear my child will not survive heaven or earth.
A week goes by. At work near where I always park I see
A robin lying dead. Is it my robin? I do not know.
I do not know. Robins all look alike to me.
*( . . . And in the flicker of an eye we die.) Trans. Muriel Rukeyser
5 comments so far ↓
george // Jun 30, 2009 //
I am always filled with gratitude at being included in Public-Republic. Words and photographs together are tremendous messengers.
gary whitford // Jul 1, 2009 //
My few lines against your volumes, I appreciate not only the poem, but the gentle hand that nurtured a doomed robin to its destiny – who knows for how many hours any of us fly, and who would deny the soaring?
faisk // Oct 10, 2009 //
I am looking into getting the 32gb iphone 3gS, but I am worried about a few things. I am not careless, actually quite the opposite but accidents do happen, and I would rather not destroy a $800 phone. I do not fish, ski, or anything like that but I am worried I might get it in a spill, or get a bit of water on it. What is the best case that is semi water proof for the Iphone, that does not take any funcionalitiy?
________________
iphone
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RL Burns // Dec 21, 2009 //
what a lovely piece…thank you for sharing it with us.
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