Ten p.m.
the sound of wings
beating against the window
just behind my head
I turned to look
Rachel I said
there's an owl
we had been talking on the phone
long distance

No hesitation on her part
her words
ask what it's bringing
what it wants to take away

I ran out outside
no owl in sight
next morning though
sitting in medition
it was back
not physically this time
there was a place
it wanted me to go

A place a mile
from where I lived
or maybe two
above the beach
hidden by trees
thick underbrush

when I crawled through
on hands and knees
I found myself
looking down a hundred feet
through a great cleft
a rock split down the center
like a cliff
but reaching far
into the earth

I sat there taken
with the power of the place
then in my ear
my uncle's voice
It's uncle Hal
the voice said
all my life
I wanted just
to live on air and now
I am the air and the sea mist
that blows along the shore
and it's so wonderful
so wonderful