MeatLove

there is something in our meat that delights
when it sees a robin brazenly approach looking for scraps
something fluid under my forehead that rejoices
when a pigeon I've been feeding for years
settles into her favourite position
on my wrist and wraps her wings slightly around my arm for purchase

something in the structure of my mother
that has always beckoned cats
and fussed them into irritation
and in the smallness of my nieces
that looks in fascination and joy at a swan