Sophia Naz
Only Their Wings Were Left
Only Their Wings Were Left
Only Their Wings Were Left
I was carried through all the elements; after which I swallowed;
an unfinishing
a perpetration into silence
a dead hummingbird
a pair of estranged lovers
I returned stealing into myself at the dead of night;
a broken door
a missing thread
a river crossing a river
a tomb of crayons
a sightless bird
a hand of broken mirror
a skein of rumor
I saw the sun flashing with blinding brilliance; I approached;
a jumble of soupspoons
a cartwheeling motel
a chiffonade of moonbeams
a gospel tart
a double life
an orphaned earring
a spider lily
a paper thin wing
Close to the gods above and
close to the gods below and I;
a mongrel whine
a flock of monarchs, cloudless
a sulphur butterfly
a leaf of milkweed
I worshipped them face to face;
a volute, a swamp conch,
a crown conch, a giant whelk,
a thorny oyster, a sea urchin
a Moon shell
I spelled
the spring right there I held
the cold cold glass
of heaven to my throat:
a chrysalis
a sun split open
a cellophane skin
a bare fluorescence
I wrapped my body in the naked droplet and wept;
a sleeping river
a bird of paper
a thousand years
Only Their Wings Were Left
I was carried through all the elements; after which I swallowed;
an unfinishing
a perpetration into silence
a dead hummingbird
a pair of estranged lovers
I returned stealing into myself at the dead of night;
a broken door
a missing thread
a river crossing a river
a tomb of crayons
a sightless bird
a hand of broken mirror
a skein of rumor
I saw the sun flashing with blinding brilliance; I approached;
a jumble of soupspoons
a cartwheeling motel
a chiffonade of moonbeams
a gospel tart
a double life
an orphaned earring
a spider lily
a paper thin wing
Close to the gods above and
close to the gods below and I;
a mongrel whine
a flock of monarchs, cloudless
a sulphur butterfly
a leaf of milkweed
I worshipped them face to face;
a volute, a swamp conch,
a crown conch, a giant whelk,
a thorny oyster, a sea urchin
a Moon shell
I spelled
the spring right there I held
the cold cold glass
of heaven to my throat:
a chrysalis
a sun split open
a cellophane skin
a bare fluorescence
I wrapped my body in the naked droplet and wept;
a sleeping river
a bird of paper
a thousand years