for the birds

Cardinal Heart

i'd
laid down my arms
fought the good fight
lost so many of my lives
along the way

instinct whispered, 'fuck or flight.'
so took to wing
and circled over
the stink and still of carrion

above the denver road incline
an inclination
and so inclined
landed
along a rock cut
and pondered

all the burning wagons
sooting the snows
that wheels and wings
had left behind

a procession of black footprints:



discounted...................derided....................deluded
...................discarded...............debilitated...............depressed

but still i pressed
on a whim
of brazen will
never second guessing
second chances
on a wing and a prayer

to a red-breasted woman
crowned in a halo of hummingbirds
who
plucked the spiders from my eyes
shucked the flax seed from my teeth
sucked the rhesus from my bowel
fucked the birthmark from my skin

each an act of contrition
left me forgiven, not forsaken
a new vaccination
scarred into shoulder
to remind me

the dead owl crushed against a windshield
portends no fate
for a blood-born man
with a cardinal heart