EAGLES

Eagles build bridges with instinct.

They leave no trace,

But, always find a way

to get back.

People don't build bridges,

they leave objects to step on,

a trail of cadavers in their wake

that create steps to take them

from one place to another.

I'd rather be an eagle.

Eagles are scavengers,

But, they do it with such grace.

I've always supposed it's because

they despise waste.

People don't despise waste

they create it.

It wouldn't be so bad if they would bury it,

hide it, or even deny it,

but, they don't.

They rather seem to measure their progress

by the amount of waste

left in their path.

I suppose the desert is so attractive

because there isn't really much time

for waste to accumulate.

There are so many in need of whatever

little value there is in anything

that it is taken and used

as soon as it leaves the hands

of the anthropological child

that tosses it off as useless.

Real survivors don't need very much,

but what they have, they treasure.

Friends are treasures.

Waste is someone you thought was a friend

who turned out to be a wastrel.

The economy of friendship

is fortune in transition.

Transition is scary,

particularly when you didn't expect it. 

Eagles don't worry much about transition,

they are transition.

Fluid, graceful, utilitarian

scavengers

of the bounty

because

there is so much that is

wasted

and so little

that is used.

Kindness is a little like that.

Tears well up in secret places

whenever there is time to feel things.

A lot of people feel things in secret places,

they don't feel them much in real places.

It's as if hiding realness

is a valuable thing to do.

I don't know how that got to be

an important thing to do

but then, I don't know a lot

about anything that I thought I did,

except that

eagles are scavengers,

they are graceful,

they are beautiful

and I envy them.

I think it's because

they despise waste.

Herb Ratliff, December 28, 2011, All Rights Reserved