On the Way to Judith’s Soul Collage Workshop, or How I First Met Katherine and Nathan

I was lost.

The man and woman crouching

on the road ahead were lost.

Is this it? I asked.

It’s not here, they answered,

waving to the cluttered lot.

That is when I saw the bird

between them—

magpie plucking brown stones

from gravel,

clacking each rock loosely

in its beak like a rattle

over a cheerful warble rising

deep in the blue-black throat,

walking back and forth,

welcoming their touch.

Oh, their reborn faces!

First it landed on my head,

the woman said, now this.

What we sought—surpassed

by what we found.

The myth

flew off, a pebble in its mouth.