This Hobby Of Bird Watching Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

This hobby of bird watching
Is like bed hopping in heaven
For you want to feel the velvet
Feathers of every bird the way
You want to feel the velvet softness
Of every bed before God says 'next.'

Your eyes look at the beauty as it
Hops here and there and you wonder
How these privileged so and sos can
Sing songs in the air that land into
Your ear when they see you wishing
You could use God's bounty and float
The way they do from vitrine to vitrine
As if you belonged inside the eye of
The one who is looking into your soul.

So rare, so fluffy these miniature yous
Yet so smart and so loving, they remember
Your bird bath and come to make you laugh
Making the parrot in you sing the same song
As you make the same wish knowing you along
Can bring it into being. So trapped are we
In this loving of the birds that it has become
A real mockery to be so close to seeing one in
The other, yet still we cannot fly and leave
Our troubles behind, the way they do.