Nanny

Brown bird,

eight little knives,

one penny for spite,

your ambition cut

in thin white lines:

You've run

the flattened labyrinth,

playing tag with beaches-

Atlantic, Pacific,

snow-crested seas,

iced sands of Malibu,

Maine, and Midland between.

O sister, Odessa seethes

under black ice, salted roads,

the god-bright cloud.

Brood parasite,

I bear your dreams:

Cold recollections,

strange babies,

frozen rivers.

Mid-night, the swallowed

butterfly springs, furls

in your belly.

Silver wings

Slap your psyche senseless.

Torrents and tornadoes,

blue and white over

your restless breast.

Snapped bone

makes a wish.

My mind is a nest

of false prophets:

Gaping beaks,

bleary eyes,

empty stomachs, bald wings.

From luxuries of silent snow,

tend your down-and-tendon demons,

mates, offal,

one thousand black eyes,

spikenard-sucking princes.

Fill your wings.

Leave my texas-

fences, broken bottles,

thorns, oil, rust-

to soundless time and weather.