O underneath. O tawdry
sky at dusk, pink and orange fluorescent, loud

rasp of cicadas in the maples—O feeling
in my gut that ousts contentment.

Earlier the air felt gentle, generous
as Saturday. The morning

air was an institute
of migration: O blackbirds with your lost

feathers pegged in the grass beneath
your roosting trees, branches spackled with seeds and shit,

all day you stream southeast, squabbling
like tourists bound for some boon,

some comedy or glory. O evening sky,
flat as violet fondant, I’m terrified

of what I love. Of what I don’t. Of my life
abridged. When I see a thousand dark

bellies of birds, it’s like something
to nerve to, a harm that takes me somewhere

free from harm until night comes, chanting
its blood song, pummeled by wings,

trailing me in its curled yellow claws.