the birds are lining up in rows outside my window, a song interspersed between a highway & a radio & I wonder why they don't explore further ashore; fly to a moor where air is pure & wings can soar or a mountain passé where sun warms their soft feathered backs, but they choose here, where sky is not clear & telephone wires hang where trees used to stand. If this last trace of wild were to up & leave, I fear this city would shatter, their melody; the glue weaving us together.