Reading to the Wolves
*
The mynah bird watches
the lightning. Wants to take
a ribbon of it for the nest. That's
how we build our home. We let the
wolves in and read them to sleep.
Scribble on the paper, she says,
and i will tell your future. I don't
believe her, but I don't believe
anything, so I accept. We recycle the
sorrow into ship-building materials.
We design it to come apart when we
are finally safe and content in the
middle of the sea. Love is heartbreak,
she says. That's how it opens.
We go out into the dark garden and
find a snail. Then we come in and place it
upon a map, on the name of the town
where we live. Tonight we'll sleep, and
shed the excess of wood, nails, hair,
and memory. In the morning, we'll go.
*
The mynah bird watches
the lightning. Wants to take
a ribbon of it for the nest. That's
how we build our home. We let the
wolves in and read them to sleep.
Scribble on the paper, she says,
and i will tell your future. I don't
believe her, but I don't believe
anything, so I accept. We recycle the
sorrow into ship-building materials.
We design it to come apart when we
are finally safe and content in the
middle of the sea. Love is heartbreak,
she says. That's how it opens.
We go out into the dark garden and
find a snail. Then we come in and place it
upon a map, on the name of the town
where we live. Tonight we'll sleep, and
shed the excess of wood, nails, hair,
and memory. In the morning, we'll go.
*