stained glass algae
sharp beak, knife into water / ripple the stillness / without even knowing
to you, it is surviving / to another, interrupting
soft brown skull, tucked into feathers / you look like a log / if i didn’t know better
small bird approaches with tentative steps / slow orange feet stamp gravel
it gets closer and i almost believe it likes me
I hold out a hand, and it slips underwater / safe in a veil of stained glass algae
what does it mean / to spend all your life drying feathers
only to leap in the shallows / when the job is done