* * *
We Are Saved by a Mysterious Bird on the Shores of Lake Superior
We attend Michigan State University in a fog
________barely daring to exit_____or enter
clinging to our roommate Annette_____where she goes
we go___________dream night after night
a shadow chokes us___we crawl from the bed
reach for Annette_____but she can’t hear
as for our classes______we either get an A or an F
most mornings our chest is packed with vultures
it’s mating season
their chicks eat us from the inside out
* * *
We go to graduate school on the shores of Lake Superior
alone__________where the cold water calms their beaks
walk on the edge of the cliffs__beyond the “warning: erosion” signs
clamber down the rocks to the water
during the gales_______we sit with our face pressed to limestone
at night we shed our clothes & swim until our lips are blue
one day we hear a Mysterious Bird_____Necromancer of Hemlocks
Their song hollows out our body like a wooden flute
* * *
The song of a mysterious bird may not be a
bird to one who has forgotten what a
bird songs like a-
live name in the mycelium root grave__a
name inhabited by a bird who a-
lighted a-
top a
branch and sang an A-
flat___B-flat___D-flat & flattened us
but who is that bird whose song a-
llowed us to sleep a-
gain?_____the sad O is not good enough for a
song so powerful They only needed four notes: A-
flat_____D-flat__C-flat__A-
flat_____we’ll say it again______we still don’t know the name of a
bird who saved our life never could locate a
lyre-throated phantom with a
song like a
bridge to bring us back an aria
_of grass______into the mouths of worms____what song does a
nameless bird crush into July_________& do you hear her ca-
lling in the forest, song like a
blood-smeared chest & beak of sunrise?__we searched the books for her na-
me__we played her feathers on the piano____we played her eggs on a
flute___but we could not capture the pure vision of a
Sorcorex’s black wingless thorax
what is our name? who cares_______what is the name of a
bird, a
bark-colored prophet with holy lungs?____what does a
wind carry in her mouth?______what is a
rising?____what is a-
flame, a-
live, a-
stride, a-
lone peninsula
sprouting alphabets?
* * *
Soon Annette joins us________she gives birth to a beautiful son
on the morning after our birthday____his breath is the song
of that mysterious fucking bird
* * *
Brandi George is the author of Gog (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) and the play in verse, Faun (Plays Inverse, 2019). Her poems have recently appeared in American Poetry Review, Fence, and Orion. She teaches writing in Fort Myers, Florida.
featured photo by George Becker from Pexels
