My dear friend Crystal Pirri wrote this poem about my sister today, and I’d love to share it with you.
Honoring Hallie
by Crystal Pirri
Born in the heartland,
along the avian highway,
her formative years were awash
in the currents
of love,
migration.
She spent her time
collecting and categorizing,
memorizing endless calls
of her beloved birds-
their shapes, plumes,
behaviors.
Held by the world
and later, a holder.
Like her beaked friends
she fed gaping mouths-
and nursed bodies to wholeness.
Privately, she cooked.
Her hands lifting lids,
steam escaping to the sky
vapor birds in her log cabin
ancient warmth.
In the current of life
she was sometimes a leaf,
sometimes a boulder
refusing to budge.
But always here,
always in the stream.
As her own body
began to change, morph-
full of unwelcome excess
her bravery was unwavering
as she surrendered to the flow.
Steam escaping to the sky.