A Bird in the Kitchen

You come straight down the flue
in a rocket of fuss,
distributing pitch and ash
in a full and shocking cloud.
Screaming with your beating wings
at the glabrous order of shiny counters,
books in rows, spice jars lined from A-Z.

We are both disturbed
by interruptions of a breath.
A panic of beatitude, dropping feathers
here and there, a cardinal with colors
crossing a sunset with blood.
I can see my thinning soul
in scraps you leave on surfaces.

You mistake a spotless window
for the air and smack the glass,
no doubt heading for a branch.
I think of all the walls I’ve raised,
grab the empty laundry bag,
mug you like a wayward angel
meant to soar the uncorked sky.

The Rattling Tray

Some of my friends have buried their fathers,
tossed that cap and fishing twine into a soggy box,
hauled it up the attic stairs,
then returned to thinking through
a lake that dried before their eyes.
Yet I'm existing unprepared,
insisting forever's a word
in a sentence the wind will never delete.
They've hurled regrets against a wall,
walked upon the shattered glass
of never having said I love you
loud enough to reach an ear.
They've moved through
grief's receiving line --
fingered frozen photographs,
longed for the bobbin
with one more inch of chance.

What if I broke our icy rules,
unknotted the noose of your Sunday tie,
pretended I was six again,
grabbed your coattails when you left.
What if I rattled the rattling tray,
changed the menu of our chatter
into earthquakes of a poem.
I stare at the curve of your back,
which grows a bit more arched
each time we sit through
formal brunches graced with wine
and parsley on a Wedgwood plate.
Your movements speak of tired clocks;
the crack is near;
I should be adding up the hours,
aware that death's a geometric absolute.
Let's dance while our feet still move,
while holes in a season's sock
are tiny enough to mend.

Janet Buck is a six-time Pushcart Nominee. Her poetry has recently appeared in Octavo, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Bohemian Rag, CrossConnect, The Montserrat Review, Offcourse, The Pedestal Magazine, Adagio Verse Quarterly, MiPo, Facets Magazine, and hundreds of journals worldwide. Tickets to a Closing Play, her second collection of poetry, won the 2002 Gival Press Poetry Award and is available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Janet's third book, Beckoned by the Reckoning, is scheduled for release later this year.

Email: Janet Buck

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