Side Eye of the Sandhill Crane

Kind Rebuke in a Fast-Paced World

Side Eye of the Sandhill Crane
by Chanda Singleton Griesë

Stopping traffic in rush hour
Who do you think you are—
Puffing your feathers,
Strutting across the boulevard?

Without a care in the world
There's nothing you need
While the world pushes forward
At breakneck speed—

Your outstretched neck
Signifies a quiet dignity.
The world can wait
You remind me—

That in this rush
I let the world set the pace
Beauty is left behind
Concrete and steel replace

A quiet rhythm 
Soft settings in time
Eternal truths
Lost in rhyme
 
Grasping for a moment
Only found in gentle places
In the slow, sleepy world
A poem passes between the spaces

That knowing look— 
Smoothes out the rough
Your life-lived rebuke
Stings just enough

Embracing Late,
Never Too Soon— 
My heart picks up
A different tune.