Oh baby bird, how I want to draw you 
close, run my fingers through your downy
inexperience, whisper low while I shove
you from a nest. You gotta learn some
reason to fight, to claw a little, to plant
yourself into the heat of this earth, the air
the time the moving spinning everythingness
of it. Of course it’s never been fair and
of course saying that doesn’t change a thing but
the yearning that lights your burning heart
is still as sweet and there to take. Snatch up
all the joy you can, give your whole body
to even the moments that scare you. That’s
how you find the thing inside that binds you
to this life, that forces the next step, and
the next, and the next until finally
the earth gently takes you deep within her,
like the lover you made of her
sinking your skin into the thick of her days.