Prometheus as Sparrow
       

Unstitched by the crow's ripper:
which part of us: beak gashing

the breast's tiny seam: wants denial?
attracted to: the bird will not

explode with: what we think:
its fragile note—whistle or trill:

we can get away with: the only
sound, a dull thump:

physical thing: as it is galled
against the sidewalk: we cannot know

by seeing: the young stalked above
learns too late to avoid: or sense

at looking: the risk of shiny things:
foil strip; chain unstrung; heat,

slick as the crow's silk cloak:
restraint does not: draped over

the life it will undo: become us:
mouth by cue a mechanical

instrument that scissors open:
he who sways: the meat it hangs

above: will bend: beak unloosing:
then break: the gray entrails, gutting

this body, self: who needs
denial, myth we live and die by

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Copyright © 2012 Shara Lessley All rights reserved
from Two-Headed Nightingale
New Issues Poetry & Prose
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission