Hummingbird Prayer

by Tony Brown
(USA)

If there is
a right of return, I

would like to return
to a holy land
fitted to me. In a place

that allows hummingbirds
to be fierce warriors
in their universe
instead of precious gems
in ours, for example,
I may worship
on the scale I prefer,

where every moment
is its own, where the smallest details
are clear and crucial.

Examining their blurs
and hovers, I can say no
to the glorious and impenetrable wings
I have always been told were behind me,

and come back
to the source of flight
itself: the need to feed,
to thrive and pray, with those of my kind,
and to see those hummingbirds
as my kind, in spirit if not in body;

to stare into the cloud of their wings
at the spark of divine humor
that sits still and smiling
within each.