When did I lose the pure abandon
of swooping like a swallow?
 

When did I forget how the wind could lift
me higher than I’d ever been before?

Wee ou, Wee ou,
twit-twit, twit-twit

When did I stop sending my song
out to fill the air with joy?

When did I tire of sitting for hours on a lightning-charred remnant
of an old tree that had stood there for years before I came along?

Wee ou, Wee ou,
twit-twit, twit-twit

When did I lose the thrill of riding the thermals—
the long slide down, the climb back up?

When did I stop joining my cousins, the cardinals, the gulls,
the wrens, as they played tag among the treetops, across the prairie? 

Wee ou, Wee ou,
twit-twit, twit-twit

When did I stop getting down with the insects in stands
of tall grasses, as the wind moved through? 

When did I drop my wings at the door like an old pair of galoshes
and settle for the stale odors of a closed-in life?