Feather in Bas-Relief

Allen Edwin Butt (2009)

Words without much use
now. Unable to remake
the thing. And I thought

what should I think—
followed by: spring light looks
like feathers. (Birds

seemed conveniently
decorous.) What then
does this leave I asked

& was surprised to know
so quickly—that my understanding
of what the light & birds

could not be made to mean
would not detract
from them as they

were. Bound by feathers
(a thought, I will admit,
born of artifice alone)

they bore themselves aloft,
What could I counter with?
I, who held my heart

in offering as much for
show as for a fear so deep
I found I could not name it.