Fable Lesson for a Walking Boy

author's note:

As Hollywood so often says: "Based on a true story."


FABLE LESSON FOR A WALKING BOY

Once as a boy
I stepped on a broken dead bird
beside the road:

such surprise and confusion then
as I watched that dormant heart
suddenly jump up
and fly away
in a blur of wings.

Not until years later
did I realize
I'd received an augury
and lesson:

shadow lightning falls
!--as if to finish us off--!

but the bolt jolts us
back to life.

When I could see
I was the bird
then I could see
I was also the foot.

© 2011, Michael R. Patton
searching for the new mythology