No Birds
I’m watching no birds remembering how
 you complimented my dress last night.
 Classy, you said. The birds are gone,
 perhaps a crow, perhaps a body
 on the street no birds, no birds on
 the              no birds, no sunbathing of
 words can amplify our cackle, no court-
 yard means low light, not birds,
 and when I thought you were looking
 you weren’t—a sound but no bird?
 Last night you wore the birth you kept
 on me, velvet classified a bird, no bird
 no remembering how to classy-
 fy me into a bird next time, no time,
 no time means no birds; no lids on my
 dress tonight like you don’t mean it,
 like taking birds off is not what you—
 no birds, no birds means no eyes,
 cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos,
 cría ojos y te sacarán las aves, las aves.
Source: Poetry (April 2022)


