Poem of the Day: There Are Birds Here

2 / 22 / 2015

Poem of the Day: There Are Birds Here BY JAMAAL MAY There are birds here, so many birds here is what I was trying to say when they said those birds were metaphors for what is trapped between buildings and buildings. No. The birds are here to root around for bread the girl's hands tear and toss like confetti. No, I don't mean the bread is torn like cotton, I said confetti, and no not the confetti a tank can make of a building. I mean the confetti a boy can't stop smiling about and no his smile isn't much like a skeleton at all. And no his neighborhood is not like a war zone. I am trying to say his neighborhood is as tattered and feathered as anything else, as shadow pierced by sun and light parted by shadow-dance as anything else, but they won't stop saying how lovely the ruins, how ruined the lovely children must be in that birdless city. Source: Poetry (February 2014). JAMAAL MAY Biography  More poems by this author