3.10.10























A Book Said Dream and I Do
by Barbara Ras

There were feathers and the light that passed through feathers.  
There were birds that made the feathers and the sun that made the light.  
The feathers of the birds made the air soft, softer  than the quiet in a 
cocoon waiting for wings,  stiller than the stare of a hooded falcon.  
But no falcons in this green made by the passage of parents.  
No, not parents, parrots flying through slow sleep  casting green rays to 
light the long dream.  If skin, dew would have drenched it, but dust  
hung in space like the stoppage of  time itself, which, after dancing 
with parrots, had said, Thank you. I'll rest now.  It's not too late to 
say the parrot light was thick enough to part with a hand, and the feathers 
softening  the path, fallen after so much touching of cheeks,  were red, 
hibiscus red split by veins of flight  now at the end of flying. 
Despite the halt of time, the feathers trusted red  and believed indolence 
would fill the long dream, until the book shut and time began again to hurt.