From Far Away The Visionary Bird

from far away the visionary bird
carried his fan of purple and of gold
the turquoise ringing

and the seeing emerald;his air of regality.
his stare from other realms.

what is it You have made what does it signify
I asked the blank and wounded skies
at the bus station or on the tavern green

where God watched over our demise
the seen and unseen and

the bird with so many feathered eyes

how much it has to see
and stand in peculiar intensity
and float into flow chart reality and, misery

strange memo to the shackled in the holy grind
the managers of space and time and those at the exit interviews
as if announcing slaughtered kingdoms

forever denied and to sigh we have risen,
despite it all and come for the disinherited.

I am the creature tearfully
He could never explain to the angels

to productive mankind and those
not pulling their weight berated

that in all He has made there is this something
out of an enchanted wood we cannot pay for;

and yet it exists

other than and it is myriad
and it is our souls

beyond the fight or flight
or the stakeholder's claim
or the 10 year plans

beyond an extravagance unnamed, unnameable
not in the budget
we have no way to gauge

a creature that fantastic what it lives on,
on its own dais making its way
through our unrbanity, our mockery

and so out of predicted range and sustainability
how can it even exist without our say so oh

if we discount the beautiful
what have we to say
it beggars all plausability 

how could we fetter God this way
in our rubberstamped parades
watching a peacock emerge ethereal

from out of the chilling rains.

mary angela douglas 8 august 2019