Sky Bellies Earth Bellies

bird bellies

I sit here humanly
lump of groundling that I am

and what I see is
bird bellies

for the barn swallows have returned
and my god they fly so,
they fly so it brings on tears

their creamy feather-bellies
like fast-melting smears of butter 
against a sky that is newly, softly, contemplating becoming blue

their slipping ways through the air
pulling my heart out beyond my ribs
my heart like a hungry cat, yearning to chase, pulling tight on the leash of my veins

and the starlings, they’re frenetic
every dark-plumed, spicy-eyed movement 
a nest-building manifesto
every squabbling squawk
a yellow-beak curdling shriek of warrior intent to survive
every thin-black-belly-flashing swoop 
a mark scrawled on the wall of the world: check, another day lived

and of course the robins sprint in their gangs,
bellies of rose charging straight at their futures
and the redwing blackbirds are chanting,
their bellies pumping, little bellows of honey-song
and the hummingbirds run the skies like our thoughts gone loose, 
jewel-feather flicks of life tracing signs in the air, their bellies full of fire and nectar

and just now there was a pair of ducks
they arrived stage left
on their grand, final turn toward that tiny silver landing-sheet of pond

their wings splayed as far as a duck can reach
their toes spread wide - feet unfurled before them like wild orange warning flags
their heads turned over their shoulders to spot their safe watery ground

oh they flew like kites with duck hearts opening toward me and everything else
and then they disappeared stage left
having authoritatively traced their duck arc 

of focus of flight
of trust of wing
of spreading of chest
and of a deep anticipation of earth 
that lives in all bellies
even in those of birds