Oh, What a Wonderful Wind

the starling with one dead winter leaf
stuck on his foot
walks in my yard
like a fly-paper comic
and he
yaws his one leg wide
refusing to be crippled
by the ridiculous

this existential moment
the sense of himself
suddenly larger on the right
gets him to speculating as to why
his birdness has been
transmogrified to include
the tree, as if
god were a zany cartoonist
mocking his creature
with one daffy shoe
too big to be worn
to the creation dance
and then
because he can't strut
our starling flies, the startled leaf
thinking
"oh, what a wonderful wind!"

John B. Lee
Brantford, ON
(a ms. in progress: " Never Hand Me Anything if I am Walking or Standing")