For Maria Yasser Kamal Al-Masry, Age 0

 

October here the flint & dun

Carpeting tundra, nettles dried,

Devil’s club hollowed & slumped. 

Winter waits but impatiently

& we have watched the cranes vee 

Southward to the Niobrara, to Mexico. 

Flushing south, not bidden, unimpeded. 

Maria, you were carried

Southwards under mandate. A refuge

Where you congregated. Here, 

In patchwork of cloud & skein 

Of sky, hung catenary between 

The twisting spines of ridgelines,

The air is saturated with bird. Tern,

Swallow, sparrow, chickadee, thrush,

Robin. Theirs are the names we 

Utter from behind windows. Your 

Sky clustered with aircraft. & over your

Back, the surging flank of Iron 

Sword. It is a paragraph now, Maria,

Littered with the titles of despots

& tainted men under gilded roofs. 

From the rubble, I pull your name

& sing it here, under harmony

Of birdsong & flapping wing.

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