The Albatross
You,
a bent bird
hung like shame
around my neck
As I thirsted, drowned
everywhere, afraid
to drink at the well
of plenty
Your milk and honey
tainted with reasons
a new taste full of
old curses
The drops of dew
dancing on the tongue
hot oil in the pan,
skipping, jumping,
spitting out secrets
I thought I was an emperor
without any clothes
or fabric or thread
or knowledge
of how to breathe
underwater
Some slippery slope
we slid down, extinction
the only word we were
afraid of
before we learned
gravity
wisdom more ancient
than men are made of
before shackles or sin
built in like soaring feathers
fixed to fragile skin
I watched you call me names
more humane than necessary
when you learned how hollow
our bones were, how emptiness
is needed for flight
as if years alone would find me
as if i wanted to be found,
pinned down
left to learn of longitude
from memories of maps
and scars
The innocence of prison guards
the names we gave to other people's pain
diving ocean winter white
a haunted wave of what comes next
I gave you more than clouds and arrows
loved you more than air's best breath
you've known me now
for years on end
salt and sand and sea and land
a black stone around my neck
so long I couldn't
live without it
soul shaking free
from shackles and stares
soft sacred smoke
rising through wind
the hatching sound
singing ashes to sleep
You, a bent bird
a fossil, a dream of regret
angry at the seams
too heavy for arms
in love with height
too sad for climbing
As I rhymed your name
with every season
I was full of shipwrecks
and notes in bottles
written by hands
foreign and proud
Water, water
spelled in palms
too small to hold onto
these relics of tentacles
these mismatched missions
we made with our tongue
your land of plenty
Polluted with progeny
Plucked from the shores
of other men's missing
in action or maybe
just laying down dead
the last of us spread
out on the table
a feast for the senses
a meal fit for kings
the throne rooms
gone empty, a crown without
glory in a kingdom of
clowns
I thought I was
a fisherman
pull8ng up dark dampness
others people's honesty
laced with salt and brine
still sliding down slopes
I slicked up myself, extinction
the only word
we knew
in sign language
before we learned
surrender
and coming undone
we named all the animals
so we'd never get lonely
and that's how they found us
when the day finally came
You, a bent bird
hung like a medal
a badge of bravery
around my
new neck.