call me a red-tailed hawk
call me a red all over worm
in a hawk’s beak

call me a white miracle
call me a white nobody
groveling on paler clay

or call me black feather
and call me colorless remainder
of what came once and not again

there is a rough brown tree somewhere
that feels like mine
feels like a refuge

a brown cross beamed tree
a grey storm bent tree
hollow but firm to wind tree

call me from my tree
to my place in a folksong world
let me perch above

for I am not that firm
I cannot stand alone
until I lean upon you

until I lean upon you
like a tree
like a hawk stopping to rest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward
T