Out of the sky, a flash

of blue sweeps by

and lands on a low branch

of the cypress.

Wing-feathers of night-sky

with shadow-black head

shield him from view

but his strident screech

reveals his name—

a Steller’s Jay. He draws

my thoughts

from the labyrinth

where they’d meandered

along a twisting path

of light and dark,

and into shadows of loss—

he lifts my musings

into the upper branches

of the cypress and into

the heavens.

Shaken from darker

contemplations, I cradle

new thoughts,

swaddling them in blue.