Bird People

If bird people
were the world
our lives would
span continents.
We would fly from
land to land
and wing across
the sparkling seas.

We would carry
our possessions
and our homes
along with us,
woven from alloys
featherweight yet
with the tensile
strength of steel.

We would settle
in pairs to take
our mates for life.

In some quiet inlet
we would watch
our fledglings leap
from the cliffs
in first flight.

We would create
music to fill
the skies and
temper the air
with beauty.

We would never
lose our sense
of direction.

And we would soon
find the stars
and other worlds
beyond our own.

Appeared in Strange Horizons