Thousands of Times Throughout the Day

Abstract

Thousands of Times Throughout the Day Kim Addonizio (bio) Oh to be a black-tailed gnatcatcher in the mesquite gleaning insects from branch-tips with my mate, our complex song reduced to easy chatter, our tiny, adorable bodies puffing all blue-gray, our tails flipping in an expressive way. Or to walk with a nymph swigging Mike’s Hard Lemonade hand in hand through the bosky suburbs, late for the stupid party, the dark houses lit by snow and gaudy crèches, our mouths wet where they met; and will they meet again? Notyet, not yet, sings the store-bought animatronic bird. Oh to be thrashing and caught face-down and fevered on a feathery bed, or sprawled and scrawled across a page, adored in ink; to be a glove upon that floor those bare feet have touched, as my love bends over to retrieve it. Not yet, not yet, maybe not ever to be part and parcel, pleasured, paired sings the little robot, geared and levered. Here, here, calls the bird forever. [End Page 70] Kim Addonizio Kim Addonizio’s latest books are My Black Angel: Blues Poems and Portraits (Stephen F. Austin Press, 2014) and a story collection, The Palace of Illusions (Soft Skull Press, 2014). A new book of poems, Mortal Trash, is forthcoming from W. W. Norton, along with a memoir, Bukowski in a Sundress (Viking/Penguin). Copyright © 2015 Middlebury College Publications