The Cardinal
I have read this poem over and over again at The Sun Magazine, and I can’t get it out of my head… day after day, this thing resonates and reverberates in my head. If I didn’t know better, I would think I wrote it while drinking and forgot. It never fails to communicate or remind me what picking up a drink or drug will turn me into.
The link above will take you to the original, but I have included it below for posterity. I hope you like it as much as I have!
Not So Easy, Saving Sentient Beings
BY LISA BELLAMY - JUNE 2017
“Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
”
When I drank, many people tried to get me to quit. When I drank, I drank the way this cardinal is smashing into our living-room window again and again: full beak-and-body slam against the glass. Again and again he drops, as if shot, onto the grass, wobbles back to his branch, flies straight at the window. Again and again. My bird book says that he’s attacking his own reflection. If I cannot distract him with tinfoil or waves or shouts, he might finally meet the delusional goal he’s set: kill someone, kill the enemy — kill himself.
