Feather in Bas-Relief

Words without much use now. Unable to remake the thing. And I thought what should I think— followed by: spring light looks like feathers. (Birds seemed conveniently decorous.) What then does this leave I asked & was surprised to know so quickly—that my understanding of what the light & birds could not be made to mean would not detract from them as they were. Bound by feathers (a thought, I will admit, born of artifice alone) they bore themselves aloft. What could I counter with? I, who held my heart in offering as much for show as for a fear so deep I found I couldn't name it.