Defining Birds

[Leanne]

Ask me
What is a bird?

A patchwork of feathers
Sewn with a beak and straw legs?

A music box
Waiting to be turned in the trees?

Or even a symbol of liberty, -- would you consider "or perhaps", to make this more of a tentative suggestion?
Knowing no borders, nesting in alcoves and
The nooks of porches? -- these three strophes show a wonderful progression of ideas, from the concrete and inanimate through the lyric and then metaphysical.

No, no.
I find a bird to be no more

Than a life
Spent searching for the best patch of sun.
A vacation home in Guatemala. A time share in my mulberry. -- I laughed out loud at this line, it's perfect

A bird is a man with two addresses,
Two homes crafted by the same beak.

Two hiding places. Two nests
Where he is jury and judge.

I think of birds this way
To make them not so different,

Wings, only a means
To get from here to home. -- I really like the subversion of the usual reasons for personification, as here you're theorising that giving an animal human characteristics is a way to deal with our own limitations. I find this fascinating, and love a bit of philosophy in a poem.

Philatone, it's delightful to find poetry that gives us a springboard for further thought. The only other thing I can think to mention is the initial caps -- in many places they detract from the enjambment. Such a small thing, in such a large poem. I'm sorry to have come in late on this one, but also very impressed with the difference those earlier edits made. I greatly enjoyed this, thank you.