Conference

“Not until the soul breathes in the fragrance of its own lunacy can it stop
being a stranger to itself.” ~Attar, Conference of the Birds

Do animals have conferences?

We know for a fact that birds do.

Busy hummingbirds

gathered at sugary water coolers

to buzz about the news.

The gossip of grooming baboons.

Cud-munching cows who grind slow jaws,

muttering drole asides in the meadow.

Even cedars, nodding together,

murmuring like bearded magistrates in green robes.

What do they all talk about?

Us.

And on the Serengeti at sunset,

by the edge of the waterhole,

a gathering of unlikely species

who let go of many small needs

to share one great need.

The lioness, having drunk,

rears back her head, eyes closed,

knowing that the antelope is near.

She demurs, whispering, "Take heart, sister.

Neither of us will die tonight.

Greater than our hungers is our thirst."

A nervous hyena glances over the glassy stillness.

The gazelle looks back, her lips dripping.

You can hear their quietness.

One says, "Every evening, there is less."

The other, "This was the hottest day."

"Will they destroy everything?"

"I am afraid, I am afraid."

(Perhaps some evening, you and I

will come down to drink together

from these quiet waters of the heart.)

Now an egret spreads her feathers,

undulating hieroglyph against the moon,

just risen in the East.

What does it mean, this ancient wingéd rune?

It means, "Survive."

 

Photo by Tom Archer