Signs

Swans swimming in circles, 
heads bobbing, 
jerking unnaturally with tremors, 
drooping wings, dragging legs—
it’s avian flu and the wild birds 
are infected. 

Must I then fear the singers 
perching 
on my wall? The small 
feathered sparks 
that fill the sunlit morning 
with trills and chirps; 
paint the soft 
afternoon sky with flashes 
of carmine and yellow; 
flit and flicker 
to and fro, 
seeking to meet their simple needs: 
food, a mate, water 
to drink and bathe in. 

It’s hard not to see 
the circling swans 
as a sign 
among signs 
that earth has shifted 
—moved in a shrugging 
tremor of her own—trying 
to relieve a cluster 
of nagging pains, 
settling unhappily 
into yet another 
twisted and uneasy 
position. 

And we, like the swans, 
stuck swimming in circles 
when we need 
to be marching, need 
to be fighting, need 
to be flying in a straight line.

by Gale Naylor