Repair
BY KATE DELAY
I hear my calf braying into the indigo under
half-faced moons, a slurry of sight & sound. On these nights,
the calf & I stand shoulder to shoulder at the fence
of the world, our sorrow weeding
the pasture behind us, that soybean-sucked soil, leeched & lingering.
& the barbed wire hums into the grasses: & the blue light bends
around our bodies: & our fingernails are caked with fight.
The world calls out to us, wet & wanting.
O field, I tried to leave you
& never be left. I longed to lift the electric
fence & free my calf from the field, our leaving
a plucked string for the night choir.
But for the fight of that field, I met the calf.
& when I share her eyes, she sees stars. I carry her
earth in my earth, find a field in every fold. My shadow bends
around me like four new legs, stitched from a
womb of nightshade & dew.
& I made a home in the world. & everywhere, the world loves itself
in me. When I remember that field, I listen
softly. When I love that field, I sing.
The Cardinal
BY KATE DELAY
She flies into the porch door
& snaps her neck. That’s how
I found her: absolutely alive-
looking: an eye that could never shut. There’s no end like
home. Click those ruby heels & fuck
a tornado, right out of Kansas. I’ve seen twisters run
ruts in the same route: ruin
the same house. So dig in, sister. I’ve lived
against the glass
many times before: watched
my red breast swell into view: prayed
to remake myself from decisive
unwavering shapes. Fear was my proof of
a soul: angry as red
feathers: as tornado: as God. A righteous
destruction, if I do say so myself.
Still, I wept. Jesus:
I’d have to drink
blood to get me right inside.
Tennessee weighs a hell
of a lot once she’s spoken into the air: flies
like an angel delivering
bad news: I’ll never bring my love
home. Where
your heart is. My heart is
a holy fool: hoping against
history over &
over. Before flying
became an occasion, superstition was a first-
light, a mourning
wish: cardinals carry
the souls of those we’ve lost, or die
trying. I carried my dead.
Of course I did.
Silence allowed me to believe
the best of you.
