Riding Buffalo
into this gorgeous life
Yesterday was May Day and we spent a portion of it standing on the plinth of a statue clapping and singing along with beautiful people and their drums and banners and songs and defiance. It was such a relief to be in the shared warmth of those who remember what it is to be human. People who prise open a window and climb out from the machine. People who are not deafened by the scream. So I wrote a poem.
I don’t normally publish poetry on The Crow, but I’m working on a bunch of stories and a series so I thought I’d offer you what I’d normally just abandon by the roadside. Thank you all so much for reading. It is only the dance between you and I that brings any of this alive. I cannot dance alone. So thank you and I hope you enjoy this heartfelt offering.
My mouth
wrenches open
and finally
those fucking song birds
fly out
into all this chaos
singing magnificent songs
so precious and so delicate
covering everything in tiny shivers
My mouth
slams shut
but still they come
their flapping wings
squeezing through my lips
deafening me with their
songs of gorgeous things
like ripples in the blinding shimmer
They're so busy
song birding
that when I appear
in the great chaos
none seem
the least concerned
those fucking song birds
eclipsing me with love
It’s strange to be naked
in a cacophony of hooves
riding a stampeding buffalo
gripping its chestnut mane
and glistening in the sun
while song birds
sing sweet nothings
Ah, this gorgeous life
Honestly, is there anything you aren't supremely talented at? This is gorgeous and powerful and just sings with life. More poems, please!
🙏 Moved by so many of your shared thoughts here, as I always am….
“It was such a relief to be in the shared warmth of those who remember what it is to be human.”
“ It is only the dance between you and I that brings any of this alive. I cannot dance alone”
“ Ah, this gorgeous life”
Something a friend said to me when I shared my despair over the political insanity going on:
“ May I never harden to match their cruelty.
May I never grow silent when kindness needs a voice.
And my heart be a sanctuary -
not just for me, but for those around me
who need to remember that goodness is still alive.”