bandaging bird wings

Aika Adamson

i. love 

              Something soft cupped in my hands, 

              held steady by my fragile bird-bones, 

              lighter than dawn and just as sweet. 

              Peach juice against her lips and mine 

              are cherry-stained and sour because 

              I never could compare to her. 

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              Dancing under the weak lights of the 

              kitchen in the witching hours; 

              the hurt in me settled under your touch. 

              You complete me, I whispered against her

              bare back, hand in hand beneath the quiet

              of the night and she didn’t speak til morning: 

              I am a companion, not a bandage. 

ii. loss 

              Through choice, not duty, love is forged;
              my own wounds lay bare and bloody 

              when she found me and I saw her haloed 

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              In the sunlight and believed she could fix

              me/this/everything so I grasped on with

              my calloused hands with 

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              All the grace of the drowning. She held

              me and blossomed under my touch; my 

              heart was only looking for a distraction. 

              When lost in the hurt, the wound only 

              grew hungry; it latched onto 

              Her, 

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              No wonder she had to leave.

iii. life 

              Memories strung up in my chest like 

              fairy lights in those dark rooms where 

              I cried until my tears were only salt. 

              Her voice was cracked and broken, 

              goodbye in her language and
              mine was silence. 

              When the night finally passed I could 

              love her enough to let go; 

              we save ourselves first then extend our 

              Hands to the heart, finally gentle. 

              I heard her forgive me and I kissed her 

              cheek in apology and for once, 

              I healed my wounds and sang to the sun.