Sharing Poetry: Julia Kasdorf "First Bird"

First Bird

    The first bird that sings

    sings for all birds, even

    when she stands for nothing

    but herself, a dun-colored finch

    on a dogwood branch.

    No telling what a bird knows,

    if this seems the first time

    light glowed on the horizon,

    or if she thinks her beak

    alone has pierced the night.

    We know nothing can be whole

    that hasn't been torn.

    There is no holy thing

    that hasn't been betrayed,

    the way notes, once forced

    into her tiny throat,

    come out this dawn as song.

   

Kasdorf, Julia. Eve's Striptease. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.