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Saturday, January 21, 2006 The Princess & Her Chapati Bird  1. I think the time has come to tell the tale of a bird who flew beyond an ancient wishing well & nested in a tree a lovely bird was she they say her feathers all of green or blue her singing filled with charming play in tender melody 2. This wishing well were in the north & north she flew when spring returned she'd wintered in a distant south where life flows leisurely but with all wintery snows well gone from northern climes her soul discerned its need for travel once again to seek an olden tree 3. The tree stood near the wishing well (beyond the well as I have said) standing on its slope I tell a thing my eyes have seen! when such a bird in such a tree is perched & sings your ear is led through mysteries of melody her feathers gleaming green 4. There lived a princess dwelling near this wishing well she'd wander by of course in afternoon she'd hear a minstrelsy so keen one bird who'd travelled north again when spring arrived now caught her eye there in a little vernal glen gleaming blue & green  5. She said to me this princess did can you catch that bird for me? I wondered at what meaning slid into her thoughts & words did she desire the bird to be placed in a golden cage? did she consider how a bird when free can be the happiest bird? 6. Were I the guru of this girl? not I! I couldn't presumptuously instruct her on the moral world or emotional life in birds yet she were oft' a thoughtful lass betimes she brightly noticed me in silence caught quoth she alas don't keep from me your words! 7. Fair princess! I with caution spake (addressing one of royal birth is what could make a person quake for we of humble station) the bird you heed & love to view belongs to tree & sun & earth & proffers free her song to you with perfect intonation 8. This ancient well if I were she if I were such a bird as this would hark a trenchant wish from me well mark its implication O water! grant I dwell in sky this branch is all my happiness! I live to sing & love to fly for all of life's duration! 9. The Princess heeded well my words & pressed me not toward catching birds instead to sit she often came in quiet by the well here she'd read her myriad books in afternoons with friendly looks cast treeward now & then again time passed with naught to tell  10. The bird & she turned friends for years recalling this a tinge of tears invades my heart the bird she named "chapati bird" how strange! a silly name at first it seemed for none of us at first had dreamed she'd feed the wild thing once tamed chapati bird would change 11. A time arrived when trusting her chapati bird came following her back home in evenings just as her own dinner hour would come a serenade would sound from fruit trees all through dinner caroling her with southern songs whose mellow beauties framed the setting sun 12. Next autumn once again the bird flew south each year it proved the same each year when spring arrived she heard that princess her wee chum new southern melodies she'd bring & yet this spring no music came without chapati bird fair spring dropped like a voice struck dumb  CODA: the princess sighed & in gentlest whisper caroled a prayer for her blue-green sister |
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