An empty bird digging its talons
onto my shoulder, scraping chalk into
skin from the curved blade of its
nails
Felt its weight and
warmth
strumming uneven against
my pulse
A hollow chest echoing in
vibration to a keen hum
thrumming away; pulling
and stopping
I took it and swallowed it whole.
Felt a bird in my throat
silken and trembling
The only evidence of its living
A soft warbling weaning to the
architecture of the throat; a
calling to be better than
you are and not
The stolen birthright,
wrenched away from roughened
hands and soft skulls
buried in the clench of our teeth
The bird and I, fluttering
pulse pressed firm against two
fingers as if to salute life where
it should not be
A heart is heavy like an
anchor or perhaps
roots, for a better metaphor,
creeping up my arms thick
and slow when I tried carrying it
gripping onto my cheek like
The tears in my chest
gnawed
Open
Laid on the ground
Somewhere a rooster
crowed
