One-Eyed Owl

by Deidre Sullivan


She watches you
with her one eye as you
shovel soft February snow.

She’s a feathered angel,
I tell you, that’s what I think,
and you agree: you

with your pitbull and tattoos,
talismans edging up your neck,
and me getting my mail, hoping
a magazine comes today.

We stand together
on our winter road
looking up to her,
our sentry in the tree hollow,
getting close with our binoculars
wondering how she lost her eye:

Is she a fighter?
She must be, we say.
Are we sure she’s a girl?
She must be, we’re convinced.

And we are thankful
that she shows herself to us and for
all she sees
all she knows

for her watch
her squint
her royal greyness

and

how she brings us—
two neighbors—together
in awe.


* * * * *

Deidre Sullivan is the author of What Do We Mean When We Say God? (Doubleday), a book of quotes and thoughts from discussions with hundreds of Americans about God. She is a graduate of Brown University and holds an advanced training certificate in Applied Mythology from the Pacific Graduate Institute. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Quail Bell, Eunoia Review, Down in the Dirt, among others.