Like a Bird…

I am like a pelican in the wilderness

vomiting undigested shellfish
 into lonely desert sand.

I am the raven of the empty house,
the owl of the wasted place.
A forbidden kestrel that flies by your wisdom,
I turn my wings for the far distant south.

I am awake, a bird on the roof,
terrified like the sparrow that flies away,

I slip. I fall from the wire
like a quail dropped through the door of heaven
to feed the miserable mob.

I am like a peacock with goodly wings
eating ashes in the evening shadows,
like an ostrich with forgotten eggs.

I am like the kite and her kinds,
like the stork, the heron, the hoopoe,
teeming with life but unfit to eat.

(See Psalm 102, Job 39, and Deuteronomy 14)