Poetry

February 13, 2018 Poetry , POETRY / FICTION

pixabay photo

 

By

Crystal Stone

 

 

 

The Woman at the Airport with the Emotional Support Peacock

 

 

Because he couldn’t fly as far as he wanted to

 

Because he grew up with a big body and small wings

 

Because she needed something louder than her anxiety with 150 eyes on his feathers to stare

 

Because she heard it was good luck

 

Because sometimes, when he sleeps, she steals the tail feathers he sheds for new earrings

 

Because he left his party to live with her in the Jersey snow

 

Because one time, in high school, the cheer captain told her she’d never make anyone laugh

 

Because she could afford it, even though they said no

 

Because she wanted an animal that would outlive the husband she couldn’t find and his dog

 

Because she heard royal families used to keep them

 

Because his tail feathers added heights her heels could not

 

Because she couldn’t yet weave the feathers into an iridescent crown

 

 

 

 

Don’t Panic

 

 

Canadians have seen it before. There are human

feet washing on the beach in Vancouver. Whose body

 

nobody knows. We’re told not to worry. My morning

hair has knots large enough to reel in answers, but I’m too

 

far to reach the cold waters today. A friend tells me

enough, stop the poems, let the metaphor go.

 

But it’s not a metaphor this time, it’s the truth:

shoes protect the feet from decomposing. The body

 

separates, naturally. I imagine the brain wants distance

from the places it traveled. The feet keep moving.

 

The feet are light and durable. The feet are picnic guests

of the winter snow, but instead of steel-toed Timberlands

 

or suede L. L. Beans or fur-lined Uggs, they wear

Nike running shoes, the pink kind, and don’t run.

 

 

 

 

 

Crystal Stone

My work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Writers Resist, Drunk Monkeys, Coldnoon, Poets Reading the News, Jet Fuel Review, Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle, North Central Review, Badlands Review, Green Blotter, Southword Journal Online and Dylan Days. I am currently pursuing my MFA at Iowa State University.

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