Red-tailed hawk Redring from a milk jugencountered on the MisheMokwa Trail But it wasn’t that plastic piece of dread No The redof someone’s pony-tail holder something shed as involuntarily as red blood cells Mariafatigued unknowing blaming age I blamed some unknownhiker careless I thought dropping trash amidst the blacksage and juniper Who drinks milk on …
filoplume semiplume bristles an emptycalamus Feathers receive no nourishment They are deadstructures On a bird feather each barb holds smallerbarbs On us each loss encompasses smallerlosses Feathers soften the lines where different partsof the body meet They sculpt the body into a teardropshape There is a phrase in Vietnamese—chia bu`ôn— that translatesloosely into sharing sadness …