INVISIBLE CONNECTIONS II THE BIRD AND THE BRANCH Poem by Masayo Koike

Onto the elm tree
A bird alighted
In the atmosphere
Silently time passed by a matter of degrees
The bird's weight is being measured by
Someone with an unfamiliar hand
But
Small creature with your pebble's worth of flesh
You who have wings
Did you have any weight in the first place?
The speed of life
Always resolves into the horizontal
The weight of flesh dangling vertically
Alive, we
Go on living without sensing
The shameless weight of our flesh
Where did the bird go?
Into what place was your airy weight dissolved?
In the clean air whence the bird took wing
Always
The branch sways as if to reply
The branch sways concealing its reply