napowrimo day no. 1
The
Rook and the Lark
When
we came to mourn, 
we
were hooked 
claw
and bric-a-brac. 
Slack
mouthed with feathers
and
mud we kept fashioning 
into
coffins instead of nests. 
The
best of our suits drying 
on
a line somewhere, where 
the
air was sweet with rotted teeth. 
Redolent
with graves lined 
so
tidy in rows. The bull 
has
too many hooves to grind 
our
bones. Kept stepping on 
our
necks every time we tried 
to
sing. The days so short
this
time of year, we couldn't keep 
anything
in the ground, but we tried.  
Our
tiny books, our pretty sheen. 
The
song we swallowed,then let 
free,
darkly, among the trees.
                        Kristy Bowen
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