By Josie Sigler COA class of '99

 

Dear Miss Oakley,

 

Let me explain.

 

In my shepherd days I gathered, soliloquyed, held nebulous bodies

together.

 

Never a port I did not imagine even as we pulled beets from the dank Ohio earth, Unafraid of ravens by any measure.

But then,
I had to go &

Conquer the demons

of my family's men.

   

You know as well as I: eating the young

is how they survive.

And then my allergy to everything white: bone-

column, love-fluid, crushed shells.

 

So I sent you, too.

 

But Annie, a heavy pitcher of regret

perches on my heart

since you came in with your .22

& shot the flame out with a single

bullet's breath.

                                  

So tethered we are by those who cannot forgive us.  Thus your forgiveness      

has left me to orbit,

list toward the old sorrow

like a moth haunts

the dead wick of that candle.

   

And naught left for my water, for that same tilt, madam, the surface

so freely broken & sewn in the brim of your hat

the lock of me.

   

This is my request, then: come for me to taste

your anger, even the fine halo of gunpowder in your hair

   

And O unforgive this earth as I have missed between your starry lips, the blood

as I once gathered your petticoats in my staining wings.

 

 

                                                                     Out of Patience,

                                                                     Your Canary