I Met Myself
I met myself the other day.
I had believed me faraway
but there I was, to my surprise,
and how it passed, I can’t surmise.
I played a game, just me and me,
of hide and seek behind a tree.
You may think it cannot be done
but I must say, it was quite fun.
The thing that shocked me most of all
was that I’m really rather tall.
The distance from my toes to head
is fairly long, it must be said.
But some of me was not quite right
besides the fact of my great height:
Where were my wings? Where was my bill?
My syrinx, so that I might trill?
I think perchance that my confusion
came because of a delusion.
Foolish as I feel to share
it is the truth; I lay it bare:
Perhaps by now you have inferred:
I did believe I was a bird.
I had believed me faraway
but there I was, to my surprise,
and how it passed, I can’t surmise.
I played a game, just me and me,
of hide and seek behind a tree.
You may think it cannot be done
but I must say, it was quite fun.
The thing that shocked me most of all
was that I’m really rather tall.
The distance from my toes to head
is fairly long, it must be said.
But some of me was not quite right
besides the fact of my great height:
Where were my wings? Where was my bill?
My syrinx, so that I might trill?
I think perchance that my confusion
came because of a delusion.
Foolish as I feel to share
it is the truth; I lay it bare:
Perhaps by now you have inferred:
I did believe I was a bird.
This poem is copyright (©) Olivia Hajioff 2026
About the Writer
Olivia Hajioff
Olivia Hajioff, a Fulbright scholar, has published poetry in The Road Not Taken, The Lyric, Jersey Devil Press, Ginosko Literary Journal, Better Than Starbucks, Light, Penumbra and the Front Porch Review, among others. She is the 2020 Grand Choice Winner of the Laura Riding Jackson Poetry Competition. Olivia was also guest poet at the Hylton Center for Performing Arts at George Mason University. At age nine, her short story was presented as a children’s ballet on the British ITV television show: ‘Free Time’.
Professionally, Olivia is a concert violinist.
