When the world stops
Frederique Eilish McMillan (aka HBoucher)

My world stops
I can hardly breathe
If I even bat a lash
They might fly away.
Three birds stand
One foot from my face.
Two on a tree
One on the snow bank.
One immobile
A second washing his wing
The third pecking
This suspended second
Erases the war
Banishes the haters
Derails electrons
Stops the winds
Fills the imagination
With gray feathers
And a touch of red.
A flock of finches.
It belongs to me
Alone in the kitchen
Before breakfast
In my mother’s steps
Her universe mine.
Ah, to be a bird…
On another planet.