After Astrud

another poem for you, Professor

You laugh when I tell you
I saw an African love bird
outside my window yesterday
Was it let loose?, you ask
and I tell you I cannot know.

It landed
in front of me
So we,
the love bird and I,
were separated
by glass that has not been
cleaned in months.
It was high noon,
on my lunch break,
Just as I was settling down
to have my salmon salad & tea,
when it knocked on my window
with its tiny blue hook of a beak,
as though it was saying
Hello, have we met?

And suddenly I thought of you.

June 18, 2006