Consider the Birds – a poem by Penny Freedwing

Consider the Birds

Can you not see the seagulls
rolling in the cool rumpled sheets of air
over the lake, pressing their case
for spiritual freedom?

Do the robins, plump and puffed as priests, 
plundering the green grass,
not witness dutifully
to their unwavering faith in abundance?

Even the wise man of Bethlehem
recognized in this their mastery.

And if the shy wren, 
plumed in brown in a brown bush,
lifts his bright voice—
lifts his radiant voice--
does it not seem as if the bush is singing?
As if the bush were on fire 
with the crackling blaze of his gratitude?

Oh, take off your shoes, my Soul,
when the wren comes hallowing!

Is this not God?
The God of my ancestors?
The God of Israel, who speaks
by wind and flame,
whale and ass?

Penny Freedwing writes poetry and creative non-fiction along the shore of Lake Michigan north of Chicago. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Dunes Review and Deep Wild Journal.