It Is This Distance That Must Bond Again Man And Birds Poem by RIC BASTASA

under the pine tree
one rainy afternoon four robins
fly low, and hover on the pebbles
where just recently i spread some grains
of rice

and to build their confidences
i move away to create a certain distance

the past feeder had been pretentious and too unkind
to take some of their companions away
the hunger that brings them back here
need not be another tragedy

it is this distance that must bond again
man and birds.