Yellow Warbler

Brilliant blur of amber wings

Under the side mirror of my car,

Sent to interrupt a suffering,

As I waited in the park, mind on

Anything but You. Tiny, black

Pearl eyes searching, commanding

Attention. Don't remember if I quit

The treachery I was about to do, or if,

Like a sticky-cheeked kid, I pressed

A little further, but I must make an end;

I knew that moments later, when

My iPod shuffled to a Roger Daltrey tune

About being just a boy, giving it all away,

Followed by him singing "Young Messiah,"

"A man of sorrow, acquainted with grief,

Despised and rejected of men," and then,

A dulce de leche melody from childhood,

"Love You More Than I Can Say," and

Tears cruised my sun-kissed cheeks.

At how You love, in the face of pit bull

Resistance to almost all things good.

Whirring golden feathers, bright yellow

Herald of the renewing; I am

Not who I was; my own

Family won't receive me. Whatever

I can't do today, God saw me do

On a great day in the future

Says your sudden, golden song.

~Originally published in "A Time of Singing" journal