Poem by Sophia for Gershon…

I have been visited by owls lately (sometimes beside the road, sometimes flying overhead or in front of me, once sitting quietly on the roof spine, head cocked to one side, watching me). People in the ancient world would have seen these as visitations (and perhaps they are!), so it seems only fitting that, as Gershon wrote a poem for Sophia, her poem dedicated to him (written when she was 14), is featured here.

Apotheosis as an Owl (for Gershon)

Birds are always flying,
Even on their backs
As they search for the moon in our headlights
They are moving,
Silently, it is true,
But
They are always ascending.

Even as they cease to see
Their eye is watching,
Surveying the wall of time
We cannot know.

The mysteries of unarmoured heavens
Are visible to them even in the metallic martyrdom
Of an oncoming car,

For they understand
The static of the spheres, time’s
Discordant music.

by Sophia Nugent-Siegal