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  • Set One Free, and: In Summer
  • Emelie Griffin (bio)

Set One Free

Nora will have les douze petites oiseauxtonight, she always orders the bizarre thing.We come here all the timeto rinse the dust from our teethwith beer, we feel at homeare not prepared for the arrivalof the twelve birdsso plainly twelve dead birdscurled and charred, beachedin a circle around the blankcenter of the plate.Hard not to think of themas young soldiers, featherless,beaks drawn low and spinylegs retracted, hard not to forgivetheir quiet sockets.All over the city, men hold wicker cagesby one hand, up into the lightthat we may marvel at the livingthey are filled with,downy, chirping, you can paya few coins to discoverhow it feels to set one free.First hold the little yellow birdunder the domed barsof your fingers, warm,then pull one hand backand off it flutters, carrying [End Page 97] its skeleton away from you—it is no longer a part of your body.Now you go through the worldwith the feeling it darts above youas if to pull you toward some believable grace.

In Summer

Whatever spent the winterholding its own scentclose unfolds,openings relaxsplayed mouths of datura

What architecture doI love that cannot bepenetrated by wind

Easy to think the fig,blooming thousands of timesinside its own skinkeeps its sweetness for itselfbut it is full of the insectsthat crawled insideto drink

This is how its tastebecomes complexly satisfying—the residue of contact

You all becomeeach other [End Page 98] I find myself thinking,now is not the time of you

What I say of the starswhen my eyes pretendthey are all fixedat the same depth

All you beings runthrough by the trajectoryof my love collapseinto each other—

so that when you turnto face me, you are oneI thought I had left behind [End Page 99]

Emelie Griffin

Emelie Griffin is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Houston.

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