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? |