day job

provisional: ends tied together, meet
compensation: hierarchy of profit and its
distribution: fulfillment to society

all i could strain from my collar was

i was a bird
i was a bird
i was a bird

trapped in an earth of glass

for this have some inclination

sparrow or crow swerves over-
symbolically. a schizophrenic
interpreter to part the swell
of wing. short carpet-haired
dogs serve. the background
window pans half-silvered
across unformed stories. the oil
bird is two swoops, goto one,
lean crook of pallette thumb,
carpal hollow clambering up
air abreast of retrograde
rung

studies

again the trying on of houses, different arms, tin cans.
the heart in a paper sack. your own impossibilities. an
x over the chest of a bird. as if knowing the sun, as if.
the color is delicate here. the best we can make are a series
of studies. so let's no more retellings. the hands are inter
changable. replaceable. the living trees burning heavenward.
the soul coiled in a cup. the soil culled in a bowl. this will
cost me. my blood. my brain. i shall be completely ex-
hausted after the orchards. yes, the indelible x. the certain-
ty of naming during the collecting of names. i color myself
at the eyes. the worry of blue. the consequence of violet.

on a bird instead of an arm

there was only one and more
she said, a pair to ferry, then
what's this wing for
life on a hinge, she said
life thru a door

mackenzie, don't touch or the mother will reject it

a baby bird does not have a primer. i am going to drive in one direction as far as possible. if i am pointed at the destination from the beginning. it fell and could not yet fly. little chance of my passing

i'mdamn

tarred farm tired
dog tard dragon
draggin knock
kneed need not
hurt bird herdin
heard worm in

economies

a bird presses
its cost.

a cloud be-
neath neither

of us. to
fade, too.

nape or
wake.

farm

     witness                 what       
               bird        whose        
              advantage       of        
              a    beak adaptively is   
          bankrupt,     fit more        
                                  for   
                      feeding   than    
                                  its   
       god                              
                                given   
                                        
 body                                   
           for          consumption     

stolen

impossible petri possible petrification
solid & solid again & beyond solid
body to body to stone, the cry
the arching impossible & the
syllables a warm-blooded backbone
& bird & back again. we're
coming out of the ooze & the
world takes patience in taking
returning possibles.

pickup game

sickbone & stitch, hard
swallowed, bird burdening.
the homecoming stone
tied on, a little night
parade & ghostly tuba.
the trees struggle to get
their clothes on & there
are always flags & hardly
any wind & any winnings.

consider the liliths

were there one branch stripped
of bark and blanked knobby and
naked i would not have eaten
of the tree. after. after? i
remember the reason being
my heart was all hard. any nest
could not have been pieced
but only appeared whole. this false
inviting to the rest of a
bird or squirrel's spring,
how could i merely look? i believe
i would have rested in its
roots and slept if the canopy
were not woven without seam.