How It Went

It went like this:

A bird that was

....perched on

.......a rock

is now flying right
...........for us

like a feathered

missile

(It's that feeling
......of finding

what you'd hoped

....was lost

then just

asking disaster

to fly in

the window like

...a bird

who couldn't tell

it was not sky)

She said
....I am a woman
of feathers,
and
I am a woman
of beaks with
no teeth
and
of cilium songs

My nest is on fire.

(I am a human
airplane
I have emergency
exits, I will
....use them,
and soon)

I have a four-
chambered
...heart,
hollow bones,
I perch,
....and I preen

And now I have an inkling.

(There is language
...only useful
when landing

I am landing,
...........not
....speaking)

So now I am owl,
....I am osprey,
I am shoebill, I am
nightjar,
I am albatross.

I am white-eyes and
cockatoos and
...crescent-chests,

I am the New World Vulture.
I am the Disaster.
I am Loving This.

I don't know
that I'm not
........sky

My nest is no more
........than a scrape
on the ground

so I brought
......the fire
......to it

I am landing.

Like lightening.

I can't help it.

I have lost
.....what I'd hoped,

and I don't want it back.