BIRDS

I never knew what faith was
I began to look for it at a very young age
I looked for it in the strangest places
It became my secret
I mostly looked in cities
And then in foreign cities and languages
And in run down houses
and smelly fish markets
and markets in summer where whole animals hung out
and the flies gathered
and cheese ripened to perfection
and then it got too ripe and spoiled
I looked for it in romance and in sex
The more complicated and passionate the better
I thought it must be there
I looked for it in train compartments
and sometimes in stations
believing it must be in transit
en route
and somewhere along the way
I got swept away
but I never found anything truely
resembling faith

Until people began to die
and loss hollowed me out
to practically nothing
I grew thin
and started to think about those flies
and then I saw the birds
who came as if to say
look dear
look at this,
look at me!