I Can't Close My Eyes What Wings Also Are For Poem by Warren Falcon

To myself without whom not
On the occasion of my birthday

**

With this anniversary I accept
my avian better half though the
human half be allergic to feathers
wedded to an inhaler plumage
still embraced in spite of

di

vided

self

The hard beak gently preens eyelashes
one by one each hair

The odd eye-stare the bobbing the
jerky head especially when walking
less so when hopping

do you even notice?

To hear

the head tips to one side then

the other

It is all
sound that is out of
balance

I sing to windows from forests
to rooftops from street puddles

I bathe in mirrors of sky

Trite to say it
grand to do it

Rumor has it that I once was a reptile

Maybe

And so too are you disguised

two legs thickly meated of the
ubiquitous hairs everywhere
inflated eyes up front not much
perspective or balance

like a weak pine you fall more than I
but when I do it's on purpose (unless
it's for love) without complaint of the
air which never fails

Air

that is

Just to be clear

Just to be clear I am at home wherever I
land scanning available horizons which are
also always home

High

Low

Vertical is

the thing


And Spin


Speed goes without saying


Greatly fond of Drift

I am easy in the

Updraft


I will not speak of dawn's greatness

how you quickly forget


You say that I repeat myself often
am limited in expression to only a few notes

clipped patterns in the song the cryptic
call always an ellipsis

Boring you say

Interpretations really

it's all in the inflection

after all the years now


Now

there's always the dancing too
in powder blue without shoes or
need of them

claws nicely do the
deed is done the changeling comes
note that I am singing to you how
the way it's done

I tell you the weather but do you listen?

For love

shall I say it again?

I shall say it again

For love I leave calligraphy in guano
everywhere

but you do not read it much less see
that there are its messages all around

And still I am with you trying
to wake you I peck I scratch
I even dance again a frenzy
brightly ruffled boasting to impress:

I can lay an egg! You?

Words only
Brittle sticks
but none to land on
or perch

Standing on one leg
head beneath a wing

I

Am

So

Tired

I

can't close my eyes

what wings also are for