Falling Gracefully
by Christine Adams Beckett
My sudden stop
At the intersection
Interrupted the slipstreaming
Of a male goldfinch celebrating
Spring with a new coat
Of downy yellow feathers.
His bulbous breast,
Tripped up by my sudden
Vehicular stop,
Teetered and dipped
Through my open sunroof
Which was welcoming the first of the season’s
Warm comfort.
Startled by his clumsy appearance
I gasped.
Regretful that my
Man-made, motorized form of transport,
Made from stolen elements of our
Natural mother
Falsely presented him
An irresistible opportunity.
With a stretch of whisper light wings
A swoop of ecstasy
And a grasp at the airy ring
He travelled with effortless
Propulsion,
With momentary
Elation.
The struggle is over!
I left him
Jilted and tilted,
Stumbling on an invisible obstacle of air.
A momentary delusion happily distracted him
From the darker half of
Natural reality.
A lidless black bead
Of a terrified aviary eye
Beheld my own blue one,
Shaded by a sun visor
To keep the line of sight
Completely clear and
Unblinded by the brilliance, warmth and
Life-sustaining energy provided by the center of
Our Solar System.
Too much perfection
Burns, freckles,
Induces sickening, head-shattering migraines.
The visor, perched over
My white skin showing signs of damage,
Was jarred by the beat of his wing
Shifting the line of sunlight
Directly into my sensitive blue iris,
Shrinking my defensive pupil and
Obstructing my view of his
Interrupted, staggering flight
Towards the shelter of a
Near-by magnolia tree.
I imagined him there,
His tiny heart pumping quickly:
A shocked and frantic whir,
A contemplative state of alertness
That would become an
Intoxicating memory of
How he had it all,
If only for a moment.
Beautiful, lyrical exposition of two beings inadvertantly intersecting and making unexpected contact in a luminal moment, deeply observed. Thank you.