THE THORN BIRDS
By Colleen McCullough Long Ago, there was a bird to sang just once in its life.
From the moment it left its nest, it searched for a thorn tree.
and it never rested until it found one.
Then it began to sing more sweetly
than any other creature on the face of the earth.
And singing, it impaled its breast on the longest, sharpest thorn.
But as it was dying, it rose above its own agony
to out-sing the lark and the nightingale. The thornbird pays its life for that one song
and the whole world stills to listen
and God, in His heaven~smiles.
As its best was bought only at the cost of great pain.
Driven to the thorn, with no knowledge of the dying to come.
But when we press the thorn to our breast,
We know........
We understand.....
And still......we do it.
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