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FeaturedPoetry

The Birds: 2 Poems

written by Guest Contributor November 30, 2018

A PIGEON IS A ROCK DOVE

Before poetry
My Grandmother taught me to pray
Hallowed be thy name— & lost her mind. I watched

Her solemn back curled form;
I, child, one eye cracked

My Grandmother lives in the shelter of my undoing
Holds my hand, asleep; contained

Within her dreams my heart—
break: her black eyes grey

Her hair white all
at once.

My Grandmother all dreamspeak. Up
She floats, reels the popcorn ceiling & back
breaks heavy, glass mind shatters my bedroom

My Grandmother, shelter while
I unraveled

My Grandmother, sheltered
Unravels—

~

All Pigeons are Rock Doves

Someone told me, symbolic
of peace and good news

Blessed are the meek
Sky rats flock a pizza crust.

I feel for the one: footless straggler
Wingtorn, nubbed flutter
Worse for wear

—I cheer for that one:

Ain’t dead yet, bud.
Good for you. Bird.
Don’t need feet to fly, Bird—

Mourning doves, they never
bothered me; dumb things, all murmur & free.

They rush the tops of buildings all
at once

What same circuitous thought
propels them to leap—?

What keeps my Grandmother
Tethered to this world— hard bed & ceiling?

No TV, headache—
No sleep, all horses her legs fused
& bow tied

Determined beatific thing won’t you let go?
Oh, pathetic, gentle

Hobbler, I cheer for you

~
At home we fuss and mourn
At night I listen while she dreams

No sleep, headache—
Shouts and incantations, all horses
Old histories, her legs bowed to God

My Grandmother sees birds on the ceiling
Describes them the same. Asks:

“Aren’t you tired, Pigeon?
Don’t you want
to stop?

Let go
& rest,
now
Gentle
Dove?”

 

 


GROUNDLING

1.

I hold anger like my mother
wedged between shoulder and spine
where wings should have sprouted
but didn’t.

Where the nubs grew over, skin and feather
left her back hunched,
her lips pursed,
her gaze flitting elsewhere, elsewhere
but sky.

I hold it like disrupted prayer,
two palms clenched

Or an unfinished poem,
impatient, pacing.

I hold anger like my mother
who did not have poetry

Who felt the itch of becoming
plucked each new feather

And stuck around,
filled the emptiness
with other beasts.

Anger, like my mother,
Who did not have poetry
No words to tell me why.

2.
Mother, my wings are heavy
with beasts I have carried

As I have seen you do,
I learn by sight and feel,
and like you I am deaf to caution.

Mother, I have discovered a word
for those who fly away – Wisdom
Hope – for those who stay

3.

My daughter will be born a wingless thing
like her mother, like mine

I wonder if hers will sprout at all,
if she will fly –

Or, if woman after woman, the body
has forgotten how

Groundling,
Do not discard your wings,
hope alone will not provide

But should they never come
do not stick around
and place your anger
between blade and bone

Do not shoulder the empty beast
and stay.

My Groundling, remember
the house of your own embrace

Remember
your two feet
and walk.

 

 


Christine No is a Korean American writer and filmmaker. She is a Sundance Alum, VONA Fellow, two-time Pushcart Prize Nominee and Best of the Net Nominee. You can find her work in: The Rumpus, sPARKLE+bLINK, Columbia Journal, Story Online, Apogee, Atlas And Alice, & various anthologies. Christine is a cohort of the Kearny Street Workshop Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, the Winter Tangerine Writers Workshop, and is an Assistant Features Editor at The Rumpus. She lives in Oakland with her dog Brandy.

The Birds: 2 Poems was last modified: November 20th, 2018 by Guest Contributor
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