Obligatory Bird Poem

This poem is about birds or perhaps
about flying as this is what bird poems
come to and I have not written a bird
poem yet. It is a sparrow at first, small
cold and self-conscious, pecking at bread
crumbs on streets which may well be snow
covered with how they are not recognizable

and this is like standing at Gare de l'Est
watching transit and transit go by and by
and not knowing what even one sign
might say. Trains are less fun when you're
watching them go, and this is no longer
a bird poem, which is why I don't write
bird poems.

I am not in transit the way a bird is, and watching
birds in transit is intrusive, the way watching
people on trains is intrusive. Everyone
on a train is lost until they arrive, even when
they know where they are going and how
they are getting there; until they arrive
can they guarantee that they'll get there? This

is what being a bird is like, going everywhere
without knowing anywhere, one unexpected
turn away from running headlong into a mirror
with someone else's reflection in it and not
knowing what really happened, not knowing
where you are or where you went, or what
is really you and what is really not. But birds
are not looking to think on it, they are looking
for warmth and food and shielding from rain

and I am not where I am going, and I don't know
how I am getting there, but that reflection in the
mirror I am one unexpected turn away from is you
and I hope you are prepared for impact.