I met a man with the soul of a bird who always talked about things I’d never heard
He used to ramble all day and ramble all night
Talking about things just out of my sight and he would blow my mind with his stories all the time
I used to sit back and ask him to rewind, to say something again but he’d be off on another tangent
This man used to talk for hours about things he’s done and the funny thing is I never saw him move from his stump…not once!
How in the world could this man have the soul of a bird yet he never flew?
How could he do all these things yet I never saw him move?
How could he tell just vivid stories and never speak the truth?
He told me, “Meet me where I am and I’ll show you”
So I knelt down to the level of his stump and I tried to see
However, he pushed me over so he was higher than me
He said, “That’s where you are and I can’t change that. You have to improve and grow to meet me where I’m at.”
Upset, I was so I told him, “Where you are is so far below the rim!” I don’t even know why I was talking to him!
So I picked myself up and dusted myself off then I began to walk off in a huff…
Problem was, I forgot my stuff.
I went back to the man with the soul of a bird and when he saw me he didn’t say a word.
Since this was the first time it happened to me, I asked ever so sweetly, “Could you tell me a story?”
He looked up at me with such sorrow in his eyes that I thought it was me who was going to cry. He nodded and said, “The next time I tell you a story you’ll have to meet me where I am.”
Since I still didn’t know what he meant, I just took my stuff and went. I walked around until I found a bar and then I sat and ordered something hard.
I didn’t usually drink, especially alone, but for some reason I didn’t want to go home.
I sat and nursed the drink until I grew weary and just as I was about to leave, a man came near me.
He was the “sophisticated” type with a suit and a tie. He said something I missed because his voice was so sly. He repeated himself and looked me in my eye and then I understood why the man with a soul of a bird wanted to cry.
I told this man who propositioned me, to sit down and tell me something.
I asked him why he wanted to talk to me. What he said surprised me.
“Well, you’ve been here for a while and I’ve yet to see you smile. You’ve nursed the drink to the point where the cup has made a ring. You seem so beautiful yet like you’re waiting for something more. I just decided to take a chance and see if I could bring you up and give you what you could adore.”
“What something more?” I asked with surprise. I just wasn’t reading honesty in this man’s eyes. I was reading lust and power and conquering galore, but I just didn’t see what I was looking for.
“To make you feel as though the world didn’t exist. To take you places you may have missed. To introduce love in a way you won’t forget…”
I cut him off… “You haven’t even asked me my name yet!”
So I told him I would go along if he did something for me. “Come meet me where I am and I’ll fulfill that destiny”
So he finally sat and he looked into my eyes. I felt the sting of tears as I finally understood my own lies.
I got up from the bar and looked around. There was no one here on my level now.
So I left.
I looked right and then I looked left. I went to the park to find the man on the stump.
Unfortunately when I arrived, to my surprise, he was gone and the tears yet again stung my eyes.
For months I had come, all times of day, to this very spot, and not once had he been gone. I felt as if I had invariably done something wrong.
“What’s wrong?” he said from up in the tree?
“I thought you were gone, that you’d abandoned me.”
“No I just decided to move up a little higher… people seem to like a man in a tree a little more than a man on a stump. They think his physical position has to do with his status and disposition.”
“How did you get up there?” I asked
“Why my dear I flew. I have the soul of a bird, but you knew that didn’t you?”
“So tell me a story, one I’ll never forget”
“Meet me where I am and I’ll tell you yet!”
So I sat on the stump and looked up and said, “Mister Man with the soul of a bird and stories I’ve never before heard, please forgive me for my previous visits and thoughts. Please forgive my thinking you were less than because you were on a stump and not in a tree. Please forgive my supposition that you were lower than me. I want to know who you are and what you have to say, so if we could start over; could you tell me your name?”
So the man, with the soul of a bird, gave the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. He told me his name and came down from the tree. He looked me in my eyes and said, “This is where I am.”
Then he took me by the hand and told me stories of another land.