What Is That Bird Waiting For? Poem by Mark Heathcote

What is that bird waiting for salvation?
You know that skittish goldfinch one perched
In the corner of your walnut-coloured eyes
Flitting wing on wing one to another.
That's bating from side to side, just watching -
& waiting for someone; likewise, me to bring home summer.

What is that bird looking for deliverance?

Is it there to chide or somehow, just listen?
Who will chide its existence, before being jettisoned free?
Or even before being imprisoned
Before I or someone else bolts an imaginary door: not me.
Sure I will allow it to sing, and I will perch alongside it
Windows & doors unbarred opened the way I found it.