For The Birds - Stephanie Johnson

eyes like saucers and a smile so wide
it split me in two; cracked me right down
the middle and filed my jagged edges smooth:
fill me up with promises and joy so bright
it stings, until these words spill from my
mouth like birds, and i am alone
again

i complain that the heat is sucking me dry;
that the sun is burning me alive and i am
on fire – i say all this and more,
with my silence and the flush high on my
cheeks; the back of my neck where our laugh-
ter hangs, loud and shining and
right

my thighs are sticky with sweat and sleep,
a thousand dreams slick as heartache against
the back of my knees, as i collapse
to the ground; press my forehead to this
chain-link fence and count the stitches
in my side

red as dust, red as blood, red as fire's
fickle kiss – red as the lipstick smeared
across my lips – i breathe in smoke and
exhale love; pull sonnets from my lungs as i
choke on all the words i've never had
the breath to say, and i am falling
again