Birds

Birds are the sky’s language
Their song holds a stillness
Black flocks may appear suddenly
But this in no way prevents
Injured and solitary birds
From huddling together somewhere

Birds in the sunlight
Birds in the moonlight
Soaring lumps of mud
Crystals of memory
Flames can rise no higher than wings
Nor can the sky be lower

In the yearning of birds
Trees ascend from the earth
In the yearning of birds
Fruit towers up into the clouds
A city built of layers of rock
Gives them a holiday for love

I see such birds
Flying out of sight with grain in their beaks
But every morning
There is a big bird
Circling over my head
It is an angel dressed in splendid armour

It is the bird in my dreams
Its task is to keep watch over the earth
Through it stars emerge
A human world
Adjoins a divine world
Our ecstasy is our going astray

BIRDS