Dreaming the Wounded Eagle

author’s note:

Up from the bottom
    of an old pond,
    that duckling
has seen something strange.
        -- Joso (trans. Beilenson/Behn)


DREAMING THE WOUNDED EAGLE

When the eagle plummeted from the sky

straight down into the lake

I felt so confused:
how could anything so powerful
crash--?--
how could something so grand
simply vanish--?

I awoke in such an astonished state--
I could not think

and so, began to feel
the desperate message
in my depths--

a message maybe a few
(or maybe many)
could also use
so I will translate
what the eagle silently told me:

now you've seen the wound--

so maybe now
you will go against
lower instinct
and push yourself down
and down
and down
into this shocking cold water--

will you finally save me?

Since that dream message
I've gone on countless dives
and though I can't yet claim
to have resurrected the eagle...

considering what I have raised
I can say:

I'm glad I disobeyed
the fear that warned me
to stay on dry land.