ON YOUR FOURTH BIRTHDAY

Birds are flying up in the evening sky, black wings

against twilight

and you ask from me
what is the name of those birds.

I have no idea, even if they would be close

I might not recognize them,

so I just say that they might be

crows, magpies, ravens or sparrows

and you choose sparrows,

asking where they are going?

Are they going back home to their eggs,

you say to me,

and I say that yes, they are

going back home to their nests eventually,

but at this time of summer

they will already have nestlings

and that they will be carrying back food to them.

Insects, and seeds and mice, I say,

some of them will swallow them, and then

vomit them to the open mouths of their young;

and I explain to your upturned face that

 that way they can take
more back to their young,

instead of making many trips bringing

just one insect in their beak.

29.06.2013-15.04.2020