10.27.2013

The Bird With the Human Head

~ Anne Sexton

I went to the bird
with the human head,
and asked,
"Please Sir,
where is God?"

"God is too busy
to be here on earth,
His angels are like one thousand geese assembled
and always flapping.
But I can tell you where the well of God is."

"Is it on earth?"
I asked.
He replied,
"Yes. It was dragged down
from paradise by one of the geese."

I walked many days,
past witches that eat grandmothers knitting booties
as if they were collecting a debt.

Then, in the middle of the desert
I found the well,
it bubbled up and down like a litter of cats
and there was water,
and I drank,
and there was water,
and I drank.

Then the well spoke to me.

It said:  "Abundance is scooped from abundance,
yet abundance remains."

Then I knew.