VINYL POETRY

Volume 6, July 2012

BIRDIE
Emmalea RussoView Contributor’s Note

into a snowy egret in southern louisiana

this bird resembles a crane flies like this:
its body swooped below two tense wings i want
the weight of your body to collapse like that into
the moss scented air southern density

i’ve turned you into a snowy egret and your wings
may they be finished holding up the weight of you
your feathered casing plucked + dirtied in the winter
you wore layers told me i wasn’t dressing properly

in the worm-infested too-much-kitchen’d
one-half of a house i stood it was December
inside my lace shirt held a bottle of Perrier
to my lips + you said frivolous

you’ll sink into the wormed earth wings defunct:
heavy-bodied no longer able-headed the blue ridge
mountains will rise above you pieces of your
finished body will lie below

took years to turn you into a white bird that louisiana
egret took years to dissemble you a wing here
a beak see you in dreams the collapsed
grass of my neighbor’s fenced yard

may the keepers of my dreams be stronger than you
i sleep in my new bed in this life and pray you go
remain wingless windowless in the fluorescent
lighting + dropceiling’d snowed-in studio