A History in Six Couplets

Called a bird, the distant
dying city died as a bird.

Dogs circled it, gray mud
caked on their haunches.

And all around,
a kind of tilting.

All around, chunks of concrete
like torn bread.

When asked about hunger,
the children replied with hunger.

When asked about birds,
they opened their mouths to the sky.

Copyright © 2009 Idra Novey All rights reserved
from Subtropics
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission