If You Can’t Love an Ordinary Bird

If you can’t love an ordinary bird,
a cardinal, for example, on a branch,
a pair of finches visiting a feeder,
a single robin listening for worms,
you might convince yourself the world is waiting
to show you something really special. No.
The green herons won’t have a word to say
to you when you cross paths at the canal.
And when the pileated woodpecker appears
to spread the ministry of woodpeckers
you probably won’t even recognize him.
The holy ghost, they say, looks like a bird.