When is an animal a totem?
When it catches your eye,
unexpectedly?
Like the hawk diving
from a distant tree,
the great blue heron,
flapping it’s giant wings
as it slowly gains altitude,
its path having just crossed
your own,
or the mangy old coyote
trotting down the lonely road?

This morning
a small sparrow
landed on my
driver side mirror
and looked at me
quizzically
as I waited
at a stop sign.

What did she see?
Did she have a message for me,
and if so, what?

Then she flew off
as unexpectedly
as she arrived
and I wondered
what this small living
Rorschach test
was meant to tell me.