Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Grain, and The Tampa Review. Her newest poetry collections are In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), Folios of Dried Flowers and Pressed Birds (Cyberwit.net), Where We Went Wrong (Clare Songbirds Publishing), Into the Cracks (Golden Antelope Press), and Cross Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing).
Flightless
The dove sits cupped in my hands, calm, I don’t know why.
I have never met this bird before, and I am so much bigger than it, this creature
whose little heart beats so fast against my palm.
I have learned to accept the trust of strange birds, no longer wonder
at the crows that follow me as I purposefully drop breakfast crumbs in my wake
trust I will be allowed to come within petting distance of Canada geese.
I don’t know why. I’m so much heavier, slower, bound to earth than they are
some jealous, lumbering beast that scrabbles to find
just a part of me in them.