July 21, 2015

leave it to the peacocks

Leave it to the peacocks to draw the crowds. Let them preen and amble,
garishly, across a manicured lawn. Let them fan their resplendent tails
behind them. Let the camera shutters immortalize their barrel-chested poses,
their plucky radiance, their unembarrassed grandeur. Let them make a grand
parade, and let the children kneel, fleshy kneed, to offer plump fistfuls
of breadcrumbs. You are hovering somewhere in the shadows, or a distant
matrix of branches obscured by a canopy - and an audience - you can't control.
But no circus throws a spotlight at its perimeter. No roar delivers
the whole story, or the origins from where it came.
No single wind unmakes a bird. Your wings are fluttering all the same.