I want you to hold me like I’m a baby bird you found on the ground.
Practically weightless
Fluttering heartbeat
Radiating tiny warmth
Curious yet fearful eyes.
I am so small but the weight of a life
is nothing compared to anything you have felt before.
How long until I learn to fly,
until my eyes are no longer filled with anxiety?
How long until I learn how to build a nest
and make it my own?
Please take care of me, but
please don’t hold me back when you should let go.
Have you ever held a baby bird before? I have a couple times only because I had to. One time, a bird had built her nest inside of my screened porch. It had somehow gotten within a gap in the screen, bought in all the materials for the nest, and laid her eggs. The nest had gone unnoticed until one afternoon, there was a squeaking noise coming from the screened porch. What had happened was that the eggs had hatched, the birds matured, and it was time for them to leave the nest, but in doing so, they got stuck in between the screen and the inner netting of the screened porch. The mother bird and the baby bird were getting frantic so I had to carefully reach in between the wired netting and pull the baby bird out. The mother bird got more frantic because she probably thought I was going to harm her baby, but I gently cupped my hands around the baby bird and released it outside of the screened porch. It felt good to help such a small animal and I didn’t realize what a bird felt like. For some reason, I always thought that birds were a little heavier, but logically it wouldn’t really make sense since their weight is key in their ability to fly. The next couple of times were in a similar fashion where the birds needed external help (or a creature with opposable thumbs) for whatever circumstance they got themself in.
Life is so precious and fragile and in that singular statement, it just makes you want to take less things for granted and to know what to hold dear to you. You wouldn’t want something to weigh you down! At the same time, there should be a mutual understanding that life is the essence of giving and taking which can be viewed as conditional, but the many concepts that also make up the values of life become unconditional.
I would say that this poem also has a very maternal tone to it, but spoken from a child to a mother. When a mother nurtures a child and watches them become their own person from having known them before they were born, it’s understandable the want to continue to protect and shelter. Yet when sheltering becomes harmful, then it’s time to learn to let go. I am not a mother, so I am only writing this from sympathetic feelings.
Thank you for reading my poem! Feel free to leave a comment if you relate with my poem or just want to say hello!
Perpetual Ponderings of Alice Chen 