Magpie

Not judged. Just seen.

---

I stop on the path.
A magpie fixes me
with one bright eye...
tilted head,
a question I can't name.

The crowd continues.
Footsteps. Voices.
The ordinary motion
of a lunchtime
that doesn't know
it's happening around something.

We hold still.
Wind moves.
He doesn't.
I don't.

Two creatures
who opted out
of the surrounding noise...
not together,
just separately arrived
at the same quiet.

He watches
the way animals do...
not judging,
just measuring
whether I mean harm.

I know that look.
I've worn it.
People talk.
Animals look.
I trust the looking more.

For a moment
the torrent parts.
Just him.
Just me.

An island
neither of us
chose
or needed to.

The magpie blinks.
Decides I'm nothing
to fear or follow.
Lifts off...
black, white,
a clean departure
back into the noise.

The crowd doesn't notice
what just happened
in the middle of it.

It never does.


— UpsilonA