This is Not a Poem About Your Grandmother Losing It
towards the end
watering the plants in her puzzles
not a poem about now you put birds together
200 pieces at a time
buy them online
they show up on your doorstep
surprise
not a poem about what passes for migration in September
sloppy vees of geese practice in the sky
the wind’s emotional labor
that’s me you say pointing at one struggling to keep up
but it’s not
you’re more like this cockatoo
with dance moves
no one looking at a cockatoo
thinks it’s being serious
don’t cry
this is not a poem about captivity strategies
first you assemble the border
then the feathers
then the eyes
Jeffrey Morgan is the author of two books of poems, Crying Shame (BlazeVOX [books]) and The Last Note Becomes Its Listener (Conduit Books & Ephemera), winner of the Mind’s on Fire Prize. His poems appear in Copper Nickel, The Kenyon Review, Poetry Northwest, and West Branch. He lives in Bellingham, WA.
