Plight inside the Aviary

A little bird perched beside me

talons clutching the rail of a patio chair,

like a brooding elder

observing over my shoulder

and I pondered, how

the bird descended here

before me

in a moment's dawn,

I felt small

inside her piercing Mesozoic eyes

who soared prehistoric skies

long before I tilted my head up to meet them

and when the little bird departed my side

with wings stretched out embracing the wind

I pondered, how

I did not descend here

willingly

the plight of the flightless:

affixed to the ground.