Winter bird

"Andante, andante, and let me float away" (ABBA)

_______

(for Ellen Jaffe)

I saw a winter bird perch at the fork of an alder branch, sweet

stout guardian! as if a tree & he were one;

but now with his back to me the bird grew rotund. perhaps afraid to

ripple in the wind, perhaps afraid to fly;

and when he'd flown the branch shook free, inclined to look north

& stab wildly at some angry lake sky