mineral lit mag
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  • Masthead
  • Featured Poets Series
    • 3 poems by Chris Prewitt
    • 3 poems by Taylor Byas
    • 3 Poems by David Hanlon
    • 3 poems by Bailey Grey
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 1.5: Hozier-inspired
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3: Recovery
    • Issue 3.5: Lana Del Rey
    • Special Summer Solstice Prose Issue
    • Issue 4.1
    • Issue 4.2
    • Still Standing
  • Home
  • About/Submissions
  • Masthead
  • Featured Poets Series
    • 3 poems by Chris Prewitt
    • 3 poems by Taylor Byas
    • 3 Poems by David Hanlon
    • 3 poems by Bailey Grey
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 1.5: Hozier-inspired
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3: Recovery
    • Issue 3.5: Lana Del Rey
    • Special Summer Solstice Prose Issue
    • Issue 4.1
    • Issue 4.2
    • Still Standing
Reclaiming the birdboy
 
I run again past that familiar sadness
of rusting struts – old plane
drowned in the harbour
 
and I thank you, sinews, for holding up
despite my knowing
a body may become a flock of bones
never hollow enough to fill with flight
 
I tried to kill the bird
many times, by emptying it fast or slow
and how right these hovering gulls fighting
over fish and chip paper from the takeaway
that stank the terror of oil
 
and I never thought these land-legs
would muscle strong, nor these scarred
unfeathered arms
would fleet the wind like this - in updrafts
 
an unclouded message:
feel your shape made to float free
you perfect engine
from all the mud
that ever denied you this air


Ankh Spice is a sea-obsessed poet from Aotearoa (New Zealand) whose work has appeared in a wide range of online and print publications internationally, and has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can find him mostly on Twitter @SeaGoatScreams. 
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