Shadow of a Bird

High above, the sky is burning,

and I can’t lift my eyes.

I’m only what is passing,

what keeps passing me by.

Branches bend ~

a flicker of dark,

like film burned through.

It isn’t there.

Just a wing,

erased against the trees.

A shadow of a bird ~

I can’t stop it.

The day unfolds,

I watch it happen.

I’m a frame without the film,

I’m a body without weight.

The air splits,

a feather of silence,

a fracture in glass.

The bird is high;

I only catch

what it leaves behind.

Hands won’t close ~

air runs through them.

I walk, I walk,

but I’m not in it.

The sky is burning,

the trees don’t move.

The shadow passes ~

and I don’t.

Shadow of a bird ~

I can’t touch it.

The sky is too far;

earth won’t take me.

I’m behind myself again,

dragging daylight through my teeth.