Gregory O'Brien

The return of Christ to Futuna Chapel

The combined height of three plain-clothed
policemen, or the length, unfurled, of an orange
shawl—how else to measure

the returning bird-man, the weight of him
free-standing or afloat, lifted
from a white unmarked van.

Flesh of the wooden sea-swallow, sap
of his veins, unwound from a rain-drenched blanket
and restored in grey wall-space, partitioned light.

So it must be, in good time, the tree god is
reclaimed by the ordinary forest, the storm
petrel returned to the storm.