An angelic vision in SE Portland

Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

It’s not all politics, you know, even in these horrific times…

I saw a murmuration of birds yesterday
spin and sparkle in the sunlight
like a murmuration of angels.
Unlike angels, one suspects
there were a few laggards who shifted a heartbeat too slowly
or turned a bit awkwardly 
compared to their confrères.
Still, the sunlight shimmered on their wings and bodies
just as beautifully.
The sight greeted me south of Burnside on Grand Ave. 
waiting at a SE Portland stoplight long enough
to see the fluid grouping twist and turn three or four or more times
swirling in rapidly changing geometric patterns
as if in an AI image showing
a flock of digital birdlike bodies against an electronic background
that looked exactly like a bright blue sky 
under a pale winter sun.