PHYLLIS BECK KATZ, POET
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POEMS/ Like a Murmuration of Starlings

Picture
Like a Murmuration of Starlings
for Helen MacDonald

Listen to the desperate tread
of  thousands of feet fleeing 
chaos to live in other lands   
locked out, arrested, or sent back.
Listen as their numbers multiply
and their murmur builds and rises

just as a flock of starlings
flying together for safety 
from their predators
in one great swirling cloud
a darkly murmuring planet
seems a living, pulsing
alien presence 

till landing one by one 
each is transformed again
to single birds, refugees,
whose needs are ours – 
freedom from fear, food,                      
a place to safely sleep,
where murmurs slow and soften 
like lightly falling rain.

©Phyllis Beck Katz


Copyright 2018, Phyllis Beck Katz. All rights reserved.