Precedented Parroting
I.
It was many years ago that I read this
I could not forget it
Because I could not forget it I re-read it
They rock themselves to comfort
themselves They scream and suffer
from insomnia and nightmares
They attack
those who try to help They self-
mutilate At the sanctuary a war
veteran and a cockatoo The cockatoo
was kept in a kitchen
drawer All her life
in a drawer Kept there
by a
What would you call
The bird is
bald She plucks
her feathers Her skin
is reptilian
bleeding Parrots
call one another
by distinct sounds My name
means strange stranger
foreign The cockatoo
shares it Parrots
traumatized pace
and rock They mumble
to themselves I return
to these stories I’ve read before
I re-read
I pace and rock I murmur
to myself I no longer
have feathers
II.
1871 18 Chinese men and boys
lynched They lived
on a street not far from here in Los
Angeles 3 weeks ago
in Brooklyn a woman
on her own porch 2nd
degree burns Face
hands body Acid She is Asian
American In Texas a 2-
year-old child
stabbed Someone
unhinged
over what
someone else
termed the Chinese
virus
“birdbrained” “mindless mimicry” “mere
parroting”
On Nextdoor someone offers
paper towels seeks
bleach
I offer
a list of birds flora
seek sleep
III.
I am red
and orange In my dream I have a blue
head I am outside
myself and inside
my blue head From inside
I can see a tree orange
against a fiery red
background It is fall
mine the tree’s the coast’s
the earth’s In my blue
head I am crashing
which means
I was flying
Feelings in A-Minor
For Cathy Park Hong
White suburban sparrow
Plastic picket line
Flags stabbed into home fronts
It depends Day
The neighbor’s grass ever greener
The American Miss Dream
40 acres and the moon My own
crescent moon question mark
Please
pass the salted migrations
It’s a cactus of a time
Teetering Under Telos
In the beak
of a bird
is a sunflower
seed weight
or energy? Effort
in flight
increases with increases
in load Light
as a bent
feather
Refraction refers
to the bending
that occurs
between one medium
and another
Every memory
carries weight Pack
light Migration
may involve
arduous
treks across
metaphoric mountains
and through
~
atmospheric rivers
Note
the angle
of incidence Excessive
effort renders
some
fractious Fatigue eats
at the mind
before entering
the muscles Lyric
diversions
are for the hearty
and hale (Think
starling)
Awareness
of the endpoint
increases perception
of effort You
are an oriole This
is a roadmap
writ
with anticipation
Destination
unknown
Knowing this
Do you eat or fly?
