<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Template>Normal</o:Template>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>113</o:Words>
<o:Characters>649</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>5</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>797</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>11.1539</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:DoNotShowRevisions/>
<w:DoNotPrintRevisions/>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:UseMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin/>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal">The Kookaburras</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">In every heart there is a god of flowers, just waiting</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">to come out of its cloud and lift its wings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The kookaburras, kingfishers, pressed against the edge of </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">their cage, they asked me to open the door.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Years later I wake in the night and remember how I said to
them</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i>no</i><span style="font-style:normal">, and walked away. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">They had the brown eyes of soft-hearted dogs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">They didn’t want to do anything so extraordinary, only to
fly</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">home to their river.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">By now I suppose the great darkness has covered them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">As for myself, I am not yet a god of even the palest
flowers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Nothing else has changed either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Someone tosses their white bones to the dung-heap.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The sun shines on the latch of their cage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">I lie in the dark, my heart pounding.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> - </span>Mary
Oliver</div>
<!--EndFragment--></body></html>