i saw myself
standing in the grocery line of my own life
hands full of things
i did not choose
no one tells you
how quietly it happens
how you keep saying yes
until your hands forget
what no —feels like
i watched myself swallow it—a bird
not the kind they print on curtains
but the ragged one
ink-splattered
off balance

with a wing
that can’t decide
if it is breaking
or beginning
i say bird
you say anxiety
the doctor says reflux
my mother says pray
my body says:
listen
behind the sternum
that almost-ache
that isn’t pain
that drop in the gut, that sudden remembering
you are alive
and not
where you thought
you would be
i have become
a species of almost-flight
i negotiate with gravity
in quiet rooms
and call it duty
some call it love
some call it
be reasonable
i have learned
the choreography of staying
how to smile
while something in me
paces
i saw a woman
that woman was me
setting a table for ghosts
one plate for my father
one for each son
in their uniform of distance
their chairs pulled out
but empty
and one
for the self
that slips out the back door
when no one is looking
she pours water
for all of them
her hands don’t shake
she does not drink
the bird in her chest
has feathers made of memory
a beak made of unfinished sentences
its claws
hook into the soft places
where decisions live
and the world keeps saying
be calm
be grateful
while the sky
indecent in its openness
says nothing
i ask it for instructions
it gives me none
only this:
witness
the bird does not die
when ignored
it grows patient
it grows precise
it learns your habits
it learns
how long you can stand yourself
and waits
for the moment
you mistake silence
for peace
and then
it moves
not loud
not dramatic
just enough
to ruin the lie
i am not telling you to leave
i am telling you to notice
the exact second
your breath changes
the pause
before you explain it away
the shift
you pretend not to feel
that . .
that is the hinge
that is where your life
opens
or stays closed
you are not broken
you are over-kept
over-held
over-explained
you are wings
taught to apologize for air
so stand there
in your kitchen
in your car
in the long corridor
of your thoughts
stand there
and feel it
the press
the pulse
the almost
the part of you
that still wants more
even now
call it bird
if your want
call it hunger
call it the refusal
to live
half a life


































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