Coming Back as a Bird

I choose to be a male robin
so I can wear orangey-red feathers
and sing soul-soaring songs in spring.

I promise to work hard
on my parenting skills,
and to be a faithful mate.

As robin, I belong a proud lineage.
Small winged beings
descended from dinosaurs,
we are so good at life
that humans call us common.
Oh put away your camera, they say,
it’s only a robin.

It’s a saving grace
to fly under the human radar.

 

— Harriet Ann Ellenberger
, 17 July 2015