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      BEEN OUT OF  SCHOOL WAY TOO LONG 
   
​ 
"Everyday language that's poetic, 100% guaranteed!"


​

Birds both in leather



I drove into the Whole Foods parking lot, a black bulge 
of weather rolling in over the mountains, Led Zeppelin 
turned up loud as I could get it (“When the Levee Breaks”) 
and slammed into I thought an empty space
except for a bird sitting in a bush, looking me right in the eye.


She didn’t move, I turned off the music, and the car.
She cocked her head left, then right. I kept quiet.


I got out of the car way more gentle than I usually do,
came around the car door softly; she watched me move.


The bird was propped up on a green-gone-brown limb 
and she was not getting ready to fly; trusting me as I got closer, 
I don’t know why; this was all making me softer— 
the bird watching me, trusting me, I don’t know why.


The granola crowd was glaring, going into the store,
still mad at me for the loud rock and roll; I was melting.


The bulge of weather overhead was about to unload,
the granola shoppers went shopping; I saw that the bird’s back leg 
was caught on the strap of an old abandoned purse, 
leather rotting, trashed-out, but still holding down her down. 


I got low, close, real tender, touched the strap, and just barely, 
freeing her leg instantly, I hoped not hurting her, but the bird
—a she or a he bird, either way we were birds of a feather--
went on looking at me, and still she didn’t immediately fly away.


Then she did, she flew, and she was gone.
I lost my train of thought, and the shopping list.


I was thrown and touched by the entire moment,
got back in the car, caught the tail of my leather jacket
on the door, going too fast, forgetting for a second my new soft thing, 
then I slid in my Norah Jones CD and drove away from the storm.






             
​                BEEN OUT OF SCHOOL WAY TOO LONG
 

​
My poetry (Free perVerse) doesn't make it at The New Yorker, barely gets in the door,
never past the lobby, is usually shown the servant's entrance, but that's ok.

​It just means that it's rowdy and kind, friendly and free. It means that I'm on your side! ​

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