Bird

Snuck amid the shuffle and wrap of passing people,
A cool wind in the ear, he took up of a sudden,
Wheeled like a swallow into the tide of commuters
And was lost to our eye; we conjure his pleasure
At flying along the river's wide calm to its throat
And then who knows what happens there?

I flew, when I was two, or hovered.  About six inches
Above the carpet, outside my bedroom door.  Then one day
I could not cram into the lambswool romper suit and
Crippled myself.  I was fine, but could no more fly
Than magic a boat with my breath.  This admission
Provokes in me a certain languor, a studied position.

Of the mind we shall say much of nothing
As I am in pieces of a bad world today;
The brain's a describing mistake, it's what makes us
Romantic, and shot through with religion,
Not like dry rot, but rather wood riddled with wood.
I'm heading for that rig to perch a while, which I do.

Sam Brenton

If you've any comments on this poem, Sam Brenton would be pleased to hear from you.