Bird/Gate or 鳥(居)

I am living here
perched above you.
Please love me,
though I am only a small sparrow
who dreamed of being a raven
who would quarrel with temple cats
but never win. 

I am wanting to be a house, a field, a forest.
I flutter and hop, but I want to bat large wings.
Transformation feels so strenuous
when I realize my own size.

Can you even see me
missing the gate? Do you miss it too?

I am living here
far below you.
Please love me,
though I am only an iron window
rusted on purpose, to be redder,
so I might open to somewhere sacred.

I long to be a stair, an altar, a tree.
Instead I hold glass
too ruptured to offer.
Have you witnessed me, ajar?
Are you, too, gaping in vain?

Transcendence looks so easy
when watching someone else.

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