Washing the breakfast dishes, I decide

Christian Century, Jan 25, 2003 by Susan Meyers

... what noun would you want spoken on your skin your whole life through ?

--Mark Doty

Washing the breakfast dishes, I decide

Wren. I considered
open-mouthed words--love,
honor, even melancholy
for the sound of it--afraid
I might waste
this chance, like the one wish.
Then I remembered last Thursday's
small brown bird on the rail,
its head tilted back
in what I imagined as sudden joy,
though I know its trill,
sweet and full,
rose from the breast of instinct,
the throat of an ordinary day.

Susan Meyers

John Dart is the CENTURY's news editor.