The Rescue
A tiny bird, a junco,
has trapped itself -
in my garage window.
It can't reverse the process
that created this predicament,
can only flap its wings
fruitlessly against the glass.
Its rescue
requires my intervention
though, with my approach,
this lumbering body
becomes the immediate threat
and not its prison.
I extract
protesting gray and white
wings and feathers
like tweezers
pulling a splinter from flesh,
hold its panicked body
in the hollow of my palm
until I reach the door,
where I release it into the air.
It flies away
as fast as it can
as if I am the bogie man
and it has had a narrow escape.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Shift, River And South and Flights. Latest books, “Bittersweet”, “Subject Matters” and “Between Two Fires” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Rush, Writer’s Block and Trampoline.
DIY MFA 