Bird on a Wire, and: Osteolights

Abstract

Bird on a Wire, and: Osteolights Dana Curtis (bio) Bird on a Wire Bird made of wire,can you see the bridge—you grow hands to pluckit away like a guitaryou threw away—all lovefor the birds living in the landof lost music, in the kingdommade of wooden feathersand fragile architecture. It's timeto put you in the bone cage,for me to emergefrom within your tiny lights:you are the starof my aviary; you arethe casual creature movedfrom yard to altar tonightmare—I miss youin my stockpot echoingwith drums and violins,hello, wire bird; walk as ifyou have no wings,no soul, but on the bridge,we are not foundas we look upand interpret our endless wings. [End Page 43] Osteolights What do we dowith bones? Break, scatter,build, inhale, enteran archway of ribs.Here the soup boilsover and the riverleads us into the whiteforest where flesh takes usto a planet shining whitewith interior structures.The moon is literalas a socket, and wefall through the sky.What can we do withGod? Invent, interpret,stab, bury, write booksto burn and plant. This isour various liveswithout flesh, withoutan ocean to maintainas our boneless bodiesfalter down spiralstaircases: illuminationfor every structure. [End Page 44] Dana Curtis dana curtis's third full-length collection of poetry, Wave Particle Duality, was published by Blazevox Books you 2017. Her second collection, Camera Stellata, was published by CW Books, and her first book, The Body's Response to Famine, won the Pavement Saw Press Transcontinental Poetry Prize. Copyright © 2023 University of North Dakota