birds / drill deep into my ear
/let me hear your whole exhale / the soar / the current swirl the torque ascending/
the tossed cacophony of what it means to fly /
to breast resistance / displace
weight with weightless / fear with fearless

my fat thought my tough meat bears down / but also
I can feel a feather stirred /
trying the buffet the drafty chance /
taking the gust as best it can /
to launch experiment

listen heart my tiny timbrel /  my gimbal / my watch precise
tell not how time has used me / tell now / tell
/ how birds feel the fork of hunger / the speed of need
/ the fleet escape to what is needed and must be found /
may still  be found

poem by Jo Mariner;
image:  www.maxpixel.net-Seagull-Animals-Bird-Animal-Species-Gulls-Birds-254848