it was a time for flying a time for birds
a raven whisked me off from san francisco
a raven greeted me in tokyo
a flock were waiting in the trees of nara
each one a mystic shade of black
back at the base of the sacred mountain
a single swallow binked her beak
into the window near my bed
bink bink
bink bink
repeatedly
calling me into the dawn dreams
of japan at five a.m.
softer than a mother’s heartbeat
consistent like taiko
bink bink
bink bink
wake up to ancestral memory
wake up to the history you were never told
welcome to it
another cultural reality
so long survived
so civilized
yet they too know so much pain
many still go out the old way with honor
out of courage or just overwhelmed
with the weight of life
but those birds
those birds
those spirit birds they told me things
i never would have known
how hearts can follow
across oceans, mountains
hurts of the past
how we can fly and soar
so many different ways
how all our varied songs come from
the same place of longing
how there’s so much beauty
even in the saddest call
from Spirit Birds They Told Me by Mary Oishi