we broke bottles electrified the abandoned
macadam with our rag-bone labor
smudgy fireflies in the humid night gathering a hundredfold
now you limn the apple seeds
spit polish your steeled tongue
you gnaw gnaw down your scattered hunger, child,
bank in lusty angles
while your hatchlings in their clotted nests uncoil wet from shell
beak a widening raw
all our rage unslaked—
from Last DaysFind more by Tamiko Beyer at the library
Copyright © 2021 Tamiko Beyer
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.