All’s Swell that Ends Swell

A Message from Hawk

Two months ago, while recuperating from having my worn out “factory”-installed hip replaced with a shiny new aftermarket part, I posted a poem about what happened one day during that time. I am replacing that post with this updated one, which, I feel, expresses more fully the deeper meaning of that experience - for me, anyway.

Sitting in the springtime sun.
Hanging, relaxing, kicking back.
No kvetching. 
Just stretching sore sinews.
Feet up – wayyy up. 
Unswelling post-surgical swelling. 

Then all of a sudden
good news out of the blue!

Tilting left, right, then left again,
wingtips deftly skirting barren limbs of 
barely budding grey alders
o’er the back fence,
Hawk streaks straight at me,
then, just in time,  rises and passes 
just o’er my head.

It was decades ago Hawk first came, 
offered to be my power animal. 
And so he has been, 
at times guiding me to 
follow wise forks forward.

One time he flew with me on his back, 
my face nestled in feathers, arms outstretched, 
hands gripping winged shoulders,
as together we sought insights 
from upper world spirit guides.

And, now, here he is once more.

Agape and agog, I’m left kvelling.
How swell is this unswelling!