I’m in love with the orphaned baby emu
the one that doesn’t know it’s not a dog,
the one that throws itself down
onto the carpet and rolls
onto its back for a belly rub
at the black dog’s approach,
then jumps up and dances
on its long, bony bird legs,
flapping its tiny flightless wings.
 
Perhaps you’ve seen these videos online—
the ones that show the unlikely and charming
animal friendships that sometimes arise:
cats riding on the backs of ponies,
a yellow lab comforting a lonesome horse
new to its rescued life.
 
I could lose myself for hours, wandering
from one animal video to the next,
but the emu draws me back
again and again, with its total
surrender to love. See how it ignores 
the coaxing of its caretakers,
how it focuses upon its beloved.
The emu rolls and rises to dance and twirl,
a long-legged striped Sufi dervish,
given over to its ecstasy, blessed
to live in a world without mirrors.

© by Pat Hale.
Used with the author’s permission