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Gordon Meade

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Skin and Bone

All she wanted to do was to have a bird
Land on her wrist; to have a barn owl

Standing on her arm.  Instead, she was
Led into the middle of a field and told

To stand in line with five other children,
And wait.  And even worse than that, she was

Told to shut her eyes and listen, to try
And sense when the owl flew over her head

And, when it did, to squeak like a mouse
To warn the others.  She stood at the end

Of the line, her eyes shut tight, listening
For wings, with her right arm still hopeful,

still outstretched.  Then, when the sweep of
The owl’s flight ruffled her hair, I heard

Her tiny cry.  It was all over far too quickly
For her.  Walking back to me across the field

Of her shattered dreams, she could not hide
Her disappointment, in having felt nothing

But thin air;  neither the softness of feathers
On skin, nor the grip of claw on bone.

Page(s) 30

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