The Silent Grey Bird

When you realize that everything around you is telling you something, and a poem emerges.

The Silent Grey Bird, By Sushmita Mazumdar, Dec 2020

As I stand here warm
In the sun and leaning on a tree
I listen to the rushing Four Mile Run.
No, I listen to the water leaving 
The sewage treatment plant 
And joining Four Mile Run

An unseen bird keeps rhythm
Uhk    Uhk   Uhk 
The cattails in all states of distress keep watch
Two glistening crows
Wade in the shallow 
Where water flows left 
Unlike beyond the strip of sand
Where it flows right
Each crow stepping carefully 
In opposite directions.

I can hear the jarring sound of the generator 
From the community COVID-19 testing site
Where I had just been swabbed
As a jogger goes past 
A solitary goose calls from the sky
Old bare trees kick their shadows
Next to the empty soccer field

An old man goes by on a motorized scooter
Hi pretty face, he says
I smile behind my mask
Acknowledging and not.
And as a photographer walks by
A huge lens dangling as he checks his phone
I see the silent grey bird.

And I think I did become a poet
As I let the words from my heart’s 
Deepest corners emerge onto paper 
And I shared it, not silent anymore.
There were two readers and
The responses were varied
Going in opposite directions
Something from the dark depths watched

No panic, no tears, and no distress
Because you are always free 
To think and write and share
What you want because really
The sharing is for one
To let just her know that
Yes, she is a poet.

And I let myself type it into my phone. 
Because we can all do that. 
Because we are all poets. 
And because we can all ask:
Who is going to stop us?

Read more about my poet story here