Thursday, August 13, 2009

to kill a mockingbird

you knot yourself into bows around my fingers
reminders that
we are all growing up
all of us

sometimes when I look at you
you are transparent
I can see the anxious hiding
in your nervous system
your spine bruises your skin

like your hips stab through your
surface tension

shoulderblades knife your back open
you are only a little afraid
of dying from exposure

your bones are hollowed places

because you peck at your plate
like a sparrow,
you probably will be
remembered as some sort of bird saint

your bones are hallowed places

you chirp
mock-happy
in the text glow between my fingers

happy is a game of make-believe now
like when we were kids in the canyon
behind your house
and suddenly we were no longer children
but birds
with flightless shoulders and skinned knees

you are the rubber band
wrapped small around my wrist
reminders that we are all growing up
all of us

4 comments:

  1. Of what I've seen, this is your most emotive poem, I think. You've left me deep in thought.

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  2. This depresses me. I love the line "in the text glow between my fingers"

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  3. I cried when I wrote it. My favorite line is "your bones are hallowed places" because I like puns.

    Now that I think about it, the two sentences I just wrote are inappropriately juxtaposed.

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  4. At least things are improving. I can't wait to hear your new and improved version of this poem; it's one of my favorites. The stanza: that starts "happy is a game of" really hits hard..

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