To Sing Among The Birds Poem by Jim Yerman

TO SING AMONG THE BIRDS

Frances used to take him walking in the woods…they would listen to the trees
They would stop to touch the flowers…watch the butterfly and bees.

Frances loved to walk amidst the birds…she knew them all by name…
She did not have a favorite one…for she loved them all the same.

She would say how beautiful are their songs…their melodies without words….
"Oh I would give anything." she often wished…"to sing among the birds."

When he heard Frances had passed away…the Frances he adored…
he quickly ran into the forest…to the place where they explored.

How they loved to walk in these woods..over the years so many wonders they had found…
But he was not expecting today…what he discovered on the ground.

He was thinking about Frances…when suddenly he heard
plaintive cries from up above…was that the moaning of a bird?

He looked around and then he saw it…just a few steps up ahead…
A baby bird had fallen from the nest…the baby bird was dead.

He scooped her up as gently as he could…and in a voice both sad and calm
he looked up in the tree and said, "I'm sorry! " to the mom.

A tear cascaded down his cheek…he looked into her mother's eyes…
And as he listened to her somber tweet…he wondered…do birds could cry?

He nestled the bird within his hands…she was a beautiful shade of blue…
He carried her back to his front porch…unsure what else to do.

He smiled as he thought of Frances…and it was easy to decide.
He filled an old shoe box with cotton…then laid the bird inside.

He took that box back back to the woods…then got on his hands and knees
And with mom (and Frances) watching….he buried her beneath that tree.

"Don't be too sad, momma bird." He said. "I'm as sad as you are too."
But your baby's up with Frances now…and she knows what to do…"

The he looked up to the heavens…searching in his heart for the right words…
"I think Frances got her wish." He said…"she's now singing with the birds."

The momma bird landed on a lower branch…she tweeted a lullaby
As boy and bird found their own way…to say their last good-bye.