In A Room Of Captive Flight
In Detention Barracks 105
A mourning dove arrived.
She flew in through an open door
Just trying to survive —
Escaping from a Cooper's Hawk
She found this sheltered place
To settle till the coast was clear,
Then rise to open space.
But barracks are a labyrinth
For doves that know just flight
Up and away and never down —
This governs how they read the light.
Two Parks staff and a docent tried
To show her to the door –
So many best attempts denied
Our efforts from the Barracks floor.
A score and seven circuits round
The bedposts and supporting beams
She flew — and watching her I thought,
Perhaps she senses captive dreams
Of human beings held within
Room Barracks 105
While searching for a flyway out
Just trying to survive.
w.w. 2026
