| Sometimes I rise early to await the
sparrows,
to hear them in the cool air at the end of the night.
Then comes a cardinal to sing on that tree,
Can you see it?
Then, I know dawn is near.
Soon the city will start to buzz.
Soon this street will be swarmed with people.
I try to retain this gentle and kind feeling
so it will carry me through the day.
But other times
those same sparrows torment me.
They wake me up and tease me.
They fill my head with unbearable noise,
and the cardinal turns into a malevolent machine
that hurts my eye with color,
I have nowhere to run.
And then comes the day.
I, who have made war my business
and feel comfortable with suffering,
feel threatened by birds.
Sweet, precious birds,
light beings
that rise to sing to me
in the cool breeze
at the end of the night.
Patricia Rios
NYC, 4/27/2002
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