I made a pact with the birds when I was a little boy.
I fed them crumbs of my grandma’s cornbread
and memorized their colors and their names.
I promised to pick up their fallen nests and put them back,
if they’d just pop in and pipe at me from time to time,
when I am sad, when I am in love.
This poem was originally published under the pen name Gabriel Gadfly.
