They did nothing,
they just sat, some preened, others sat. I thought we have so much to learn
from Nature, the ability to just be present, tune into the little things, and
this ability to do self care, like this one parakeet was doing... preening. I
used the Hindi term shringaar, which
is the act of beautifying oneself, typically used when a woman is bathing,
indulging in ritual acts of beautification, and then adorning herself with
jewels and flowers. How we all need to do this more, how this is an act of self
love, and how vital this is.
 |
| Photograph by Jagdeep Rajput |
Life Lessons From A Parakeet
by Jhilmil Breckenridge
Five birds on a
treetop
preen.
Five birds on
branches
perch.
The vain parakeet —
I watch her in
wonder.
She preens and
cleans,
leaving no part of
her body
unpreened.
I smile, thinking of
us women
Whether we could
spend
half an hour on
shringaar
every morning…
Pampering, preening.
Meanwhile dawn gives
way
to morning as a
pigeon
flies by, wings
furiously
moving, yet in slow
motion
for me.
The sky is dusty haze,
like my iPhone tells
me —
27 degrees Haze.
As I think of the
bluer than blue
skies of West
Drayton,
smiling, I come back
to watching
the parakeet as she
preens.
She does not care
about other birds,
what they sing,
what the weather is
like.
She preens, taking
care of her body.
And as I watch, I realize
it is not vanity,
this is nature.
Preening is natural,
needed, vital
And as the sun rises
higher,
she gracefully flies
away.
Jhilmil Breckenridge is a poet, writer and activist who speaks out about mental health, incarceration and abuse. She has just completed her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster. Her poems often worry about issues of feeling lost in a changing world, the immigrant or foreign experience, love and loss and longing, and nostalgia for times gone by. She is Fiction Editor for a South Asian literary magazine, Open Road Review. She is working on her first novel and when she is not writing, she is chasing clouds and rainbows with her iPhone. You may connect with Jhilmil on Twitter here.
~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~
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