Up

by Autumn Sharp                                                                                                       

 

—fly you,

 

bird with weathered hinge springs,

 

bird of untenable

 

gestures, bird of seconds left, orange-crowned

warbler, backyard juncture filibuster.

 

Up fly

 

you—

 

bird of hankerings,

            bird of utensils and small appliances. Rotators spinning,

 

            bird with two whisks, beating            

                                                            whip cream

into stiff, white cloud-peaks.

 

Bird of cheek and stale wandering.

 

            Bird of pantry. Bird unsure of cake.         

Bird of quandary.                   

 

Up-swept kite-bird, tri-color nylon bird

of a small proportion of threads. Polythene and Mylar,

 

roped-string and tether bird. Unsuspecting,  

                                               

                                                            wind-sacked, bird of offerings—

 

Of splintered spoons, and thinning synthetic lines.

                        Bird of free-from-the binds that bind.

 

 

Tufted, down bedding bird of plentiful.         Up—

 

you—          fly—

 

with tenement hind-sight

                        into the viscous rivulets of the troposphere.

 

                        Bird fly there and bird fly here.

 

Bird of underpinnings and dovetail joints. 

                       

            Bird of wooden boat and plank,

           

                                    of crested swells and afterthought. 

 

Bird of thicket, bird with brackish accent,

            quipping away at unearthed cement.

 

                                                Bird of cracked flour.

 

Stipple and hasp bird of the hour.

 

            Shoehorn bird of immaculate curvature.

Ivory tooth bird

 

of mantelpiece chatter. Bird of mundane fixtures,    

 

bird on plates.

 

Up—

 

            Fly—


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