At Dale Road

Between two rows of trees
Tall with maple and birch
Thick with sumac and the fallen
I can only see out
If I look straight up
I walk

One thousand birds talk
A dozen different dialects
Can't see them
Can only hear them
Deafening
Can't hear the cars on Woodbury Road
Can't hear the dog's tags jingle
Can't hear the crunch of my boots on the snow
I hear nothing but the conversations
of a thousand birds

My mother's daughter
Never could resist a coffee klatsch
I whistle the only bird song I know
Quarter note high, quarter note low

Silence
Deafened now by silence
Oh my god
One thousand birds
A colony of birds
And I have stopped them breathing

Silence
One second
Fear?
Two seconds
Translating?
Three seconds, four
On the beat of five
The conversations start up anew

I can't resist
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
I whistle my two notes again
One thousand birds
go on talking in a dozen dialects

I have been assimilated