So strange to have to look down
To observe something fitted for ascension–
Small though you were, trembling on the ground–
So I hastily in human pretension
Saved you from the stray cat’s petty maw–
Raptured you with hands cupped
From the impending unsheathed claw–
And flightlessly you were lifted up.
But as I placed you atop the woodpile rafter
As your self-appointed unsung hero,
Standing by to ensure your safety thereafter,
Your infantile wings unfurled, and lo!–
It was you who then looked down at I,
A beast who walks upright but cannot fly.

To a Fledgling Robin Misplaced by Joshua Brunetti
Keep reading
FictionThings Go South by Steven Asch
A red letter day , thought Leland Hendy as his feet pounded the dirt streets of Mendocino City, Mendocino County, California. It was late and hot and September, 1933. “Seven years of…
FictionSit Down. Let Me Tell You a Funny Story. By Cynthia Pitman
I was only seventeen when I fell in love with a one-armed trumpet player. It didn’t take long. I met him. I fell in love. That quick. My older sister sang in…
PoetryNot Exactly Florence Nightingale by Claire Scott
that’s you not me in the white bed, white board with the name of today’s on-duty nurse: Mahalia Reyes me in my gym clothes and Asics running shoes still pink from exertion…
FictionThe Metaphor by Bruce Levine
The last embers died in the hearth. Charlie had been sitting there, staring for hours as the crackling logs reduced to twigs and then to lumps like coal and finally to embers,…