We’re the opposite of birds,
We talk In formation. The data is enough To drag you down. Do your eyes cast shadows? When you step into the sun do you become A radio? There’s one Last ladder to climb, that’s it. Did you think You were here to merely coexist with moss? To eat and starve and lunge At the moon? There is no such thing as. When we woke up we were, and when we Close our eyes again we collapse Into a particle. It isn’t even chemistry. Stretch your arms All you’d like, you won’t hoist Your way into a new dimension, to become The tree, to become the universe Of ants. We fold our napkins into &s. Not sex, not the weather. What do you think about this? We are born in a hospital. We fly North for the winter.
Julie Howd is the author of Talking from the Knees Up (dancing girl press, 2018). She holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and is the recipient of fellowships from the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and the James A. Michener Center. Her work can be found in Sixth Finch, Inter|rupture, Forklift, Ohio, and other journals.
