— unpredictable thoughts

Poem today : Paired Things

Who, who had only seen wings,
could extrap­o­late the
skinny sticks of things
birds use for land,
the back­ward way they bend,
the silly way they stand?
And who, only study­ing
bird­tracks in the sand,
could think those lit­tle forks
had decamped on the wind?
So many paired things seem odd.
Who ever would have dreamed
the broad winged raven of despair
would quit the air and go
bandy­legged upon the ground,
a com­mon crow?

—Kay Ryan, 1994