Walking now
through the year
I tried to fly,
when I hung at the bottom
of a chimney,
how I landed on the wall
above the piano,
how I fell into the black
top and
hid.
The air tells me I am desperate.
to be a crow,
a finch,
whisper yes to a sparrow
& speak
from a bag
of teeth or
be carried as a burden.
The birds and I,
gurgling,
chamber music
and wanting
something about limits fancy
and flights.
I imagine this: the eagle
descending
on the sled
and snatching
it, the bushtit
in the cage,
the owl peering out,
Rubies throbbing
through
the streets
And waiting
for me
in the wind.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c230c2_7fa85110aec74fafa40bbd919df30701~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_718,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c230c2_7fa85110aec74fafa40bbd919df30701~mv2.jpg)
Rowan Waters (they/them) is a queer poet and MFA candidate hailing from the forests of the PNW, currently living in Oakland, California. With a deep fondness for all things creepy, crawly, and understoried, their poetry attempts to use language and sound as a means to enact the interrelations of the human and more-than-human world. They have previously published poems in The Cooper Point Journal and TheElephant Room Zine.
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