POETRY

A Bird in the Hand

A Poem

“A Bird in the Hand,” a collage created by the author. (See note for sources.)

Rain drums down from a pale blue sky,
washing my face raw. A bird in a bush holds
bitter-red berries in its beak. The ground below
waits to embrace the seeds. I question
the number of sorrys I have given,
stretch out my tongue, reveal
a desert—dry and barren in my throat. I palm
the sky as I would your face, talk up
to the blue, tell it how the ground —
salted with blood-thick…