If I could

Photo©Ronnie Robertson

If only I could speak in the tongue of the birds,

in leaf-whisper and stream murmur,

if I could split the air with curved beak and bent wings,

pad silent in the dark of under-earth galleries,

curl warm in the communal nest with grateful young,

if I could be the wind, the wave, the warble of life,

I would speak to you in rose,

kiss you in hummingbird,

sing to you in moonbeams,

and I would hear you reply

in the majestic, melodious mantra

of the homing geese.