Poetry

by Andrew Hachey

I came to the schoolyard and began

to label every flying thing I found. 

Red wing. Sparrow. 

 

From under your nest

I pulled the fallen shell 

out from a blackthorn 

 

my fist held tight, knot of root. 

Lifted my hand that became 

a bloody Saint Sebastian, 

 

arrow-pierced, cupping the cracked thing. 

Two empty sockets. Gapping beak.

Five red tributaries turned 

 

to a river at my wrist. 

Mother Bird, how go the wars? 

Can I offer the rest 

 

of my body? 

To find the probability 

of this trajectory. 

 

Use centrifugal force 

to combat unknowing.

Mother Bird, were we wailing 

 

or laughing? Your friends 

descended from their branches. 

Marched solemn around our fallen. 

 

Brought clippings of grass, 

tulip petals to lay 

in the circle. We sat and together

 

named other birds. 

Familiars. Scratched the blue half-shell 

like a lamp until birth dust  

 

appeared as a chalk on my fingers. 

Agreed we did not ask for this.

Blew away the hollow bones

through falling leaves.