...

[[ taxidermy scars ]]
.

to make pigeons of our fingers

.........[squawk-squawk]--

end up with two beaks, squawk dissected
throats, whoops of incessant squawking

.........[it doesn’t help to recall
the moment of birds
..............in pain--
the house is done: we’ve built
our syringes out of frozen
..sprigs, synthetic
glossae, all slicked-

...........................on prostheses]


*

................she claims
identity is found only inside
....................the body--
not outside: beaks
are superficial
parts, so are eyes. feet

*

I help myself to a bucket of scars,
a one-eyed jackal, arrangements
of skin whittled into trophy bone

............archaeopteryx
glossed-over eyes bewilderment
settling on hollowed-out bodies in mist
she speaks to me like I’m a broken girl
with my hands greedily placed

.....................inside a cookie jar
..........feeling for the emptiness
................that encrusted

at the bottom long,
long ago