The student writes a word, copse, quickly

realizing if the poem were read aloud, the listener

might assume the word is cops and become confused



because why would that small child in the poem

walk straight into an unlit murder of cops looking

for the owl she had been hearing all night, the owl



who had kept her from sinking into the lake

of sleep she had so badly wanted? Because



the student is talented, the student understands

thicket would also suffice, but those syllables

disagree with the poem’s neighboring sibilants



and circular vowels, so the student begins to feel

the first light of uncaring, an unfamiliar feeling, knowing

copse is more true than thicket, knowing that sound

allows a more important logic than sense. But class

raises its concern after the poem is read aloud



because the class feels compelled to police

sense in a way the student wishes to forget since

the student suddenly feels like the small child



looking in the dark for the owl who kept her

far from sleep, the owl whose ring-shaped offerings

may only be described in the act of voicing.