Birds Can Sense Pain

Birds Can Sense Pain

Mar 1

Written By Claire McPeak

Did you know moonlight is still sunlight

and birds can sense pain?

A halo around a floating rock

wakes my senses. I am a wolf in the night

howling, “Here I am, moon, I am alive!”

Send me a flare of hope.

Rip it straight through my lungs.

The rock sinks with dawn

and rests atop my chest

a nested bird.

Finches and wrens sing,

asking me if it’s okay

that today is heavy.

In my chest the rock rotates in and out of view,

revealing to me my darkest corners.

And again, it sprouts from my lungs

back into the pitch-black night.

Wake me like a bud in spring,

kissed on the forehead with dewy light.

And if I can’t rid this weight,

remind me that moonlight is still sunlight.