Science Class
On a homeschool-winter day,
an ice-bird
became the object of science class:
two feet curled under tucked tarsi,
in a posthumous attempt to keep warm.
I’ll never forget the way it looked at me
with lost eyes, forever wide with frost.
A quick hypothesis gathered –
snow on a branch knot.
***
The Wing Tattoo
I nearly fall asleep
as the needle pokes my sweatiest pores
for four and a half hours
I dream of flying away
but I’m an imitation
of the flock of gulls that opens my eyes
my toes still feel the sand
stuck in my shoes from the last time
I tried to take a running start
Amanda Butler is the author of chapbook Tableau Vivant (dancing girl press, 2015) with an upcoming chapbook, effercrescent, to follow this fall through the same press. Her poetry has also appeared in ALTARWORK and Saint Leo University’s literary journal Sandhill Review. She can be found online at arsamandica.wordpress.com and on Twitter @arsamandica.
“Poetry matters because every poem is a time capsule, a still-life of the world around the poet. Every poem stops time for a moment and reflects current attitudes about the environment – religion, politics, nature, and human relationships – to be unpacked every time these poems are read. Math builds up, science builds ahead, and poetry builds behind as a part of history. If we were to combine every poem ever written, we would have a single poem that defines the human condition.”
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