My name is    Miss Mary    Mack        Mack        Mack

 

        you sing it      my name

 

I turned into a bluebird last summer, I flew 

 

through all the South. My wings are blue 

and I touch the sky. 

 

At first, I decided I was never coming back.

 

I took off my black

                               housedress. I knew freedom 

 

was not the act of flying, 

                      but the steady beat of wings. 

 

It was my steady black,

 

                      blue and my blues were gone,

 

I wanted to be 

 

                      a bird and became.

Copyright © 2020 Tyree Daye. From Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). Used with permission of the author and Copper Canyon Press (coppercanyonpress.org)