Bluebird's Birthday

by Justin Albatross Cooper

The birds rise up in celebration

It is Bluebird’s birthday

They ruffle and preen

Open their variegated beaks

Sing songs and gather seeds

Even the raptor’s dives 

Are not with talons out 

But with wings spread 

They twirl and dance for Bluebird

I see you in the walled garden, Laura

Tending and nurturing 

Encouraging growth from dead soils 

Up they wriggle toward the light

And you guide them all along the way

Caring, showering them with happy rain

That even lands among the neighbors

We are those wisteria shoots, Love 

Wrangling each other on our knitted paths

I believe that we were two albatrosses once

Dancing with each other over rocky shores 

Slipping our beaks over wings long missed

Smoothing out love feathers 

For epic flights of yearning 

But always returning home

To nestle the breast of the other

While arctic winds batter grassy nests

And rocks howl all around us

I believe that we were starlings once 

Entangled in our murmurations

Above the grassy rolling hills

Creating beauty with collective flights

That whirl through twilight  

Like galaxies in the village

And topple into symbols 

A cacophonous smiling flock

Laying waste to countrysides of jazz

I see you in the walled garden, Laura

And the clouds are charged and change like your eyes

If rain will fall then I will become drenched in the rain

When lightning strikes then I will howl the thunder

If a twister crashes down then I will Dorothy up

When all is calm then I will lie in the fields 

And blow kisses up at those skies

Run fingers over the smooth grass

Soak in the slipping sun rise

The birds rise up in celebration

Their nests are soggy with Dibon

I hear your steps along our halls

You understand all the signs and symbols

That reside in frames upon our walls

Laura, I love you, Miffy, Bluebird, mein Schatz

When we sit sipping coffee under the wisteria

We are those wisteria shoots, Love 

Wrangling each other on our knitted paths