Salvation (and an injured bird) by Dorsía Smith Silva

It wasn’t meant to be saved     
among my memoir of hurricane
to beat back the armed sun
wind is stunned that the wings aren’t threadbare
don’t plunge to the street
as brittle bones of loss
call it luck that no cage can thatch feathers
no net can puncture beak 
wings flap despite the death-wish season 
which means memory to shoulder direction 
and change chime for flock to follow
It wasn’t meant to be saved 
when the sky loots the last bundle of bruises
swells blue then blackblack

Dorsía Smith Silva is the author of In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry, 2024), poetry editor of The Hopper, and professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. She has received support from Bread Loaf and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. 

21 October 2024