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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