ALARMING BEAUTY OF THE SKY, THE

The Memory of Abortion Unexpectedly Returns

67 The Memory of Abortion Unexpectedly Returns The sun has trailed its negligee across The pinkened threshold of the globe and left Behind a blue-gray edge around the window. Selecting silken undies from a drawer, She thinks of loneliness and hummingbirds. A violet-crowned one sometimes comes to perch In solitude against the evening sky; It’s sitting there right now, in plainest view, Digesting nectar, waiting for the night To settle. Suddenly it breaks away, A tiny, falling glow she can’t retrieve— Unlike the camisole forever sliding Off of the lacquered bedpost to the floor— As light as ashes, light as sighs; a small, Bright, sleeping bird that dies and dies and dies. ...