Jennifer MacBain-Stephens

NEST

Feathers still wet
                  Alone
                     You've poached a new nook
                                         Magic welded walls together
                                                     Dirt always comes with wood
Splinters linger and so do the insects
                  Gently flying about stealing lamplight
                                         Replacing blurry rituals with
                                                                       Panic
Let's all go uneaten, shall we
We never called each other                      baby
                                 Wingspan spacious now — entwine my own bark bits goose down
                                         Cotton scraps tiny hairs dryer lint
                                                                       Un-shared air
Garbage really when the crickets are a force to reckon with
Any                        repeated             rhythmic             sound             is             scary
                                         skin flat-lined against the flannel
                                                                       snuggledy buggledy              don't say bug
crescent moon                          a shark tooth
I tear up pages rooms lists strings attached beaks cannot bite
                                 the smaller the species the larger the heart size

Drift                            wait

                                         Toss                          wait

                                                                              Turn                          wait
Jump
I pulled my hair out to make this for you
                                                               The strands blew away

Jennifer MacBain-Stephens has poems published in Superstition Review, Emerge Literary Journal, Red Savina Review, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Burningwood Literary Journal, The Apeiron Review, Dead Flowers: A Poetry Rag, Star 82 Review, Thirteen Myna Birds, Rufous City Review, Stirring: A Literary Collection, and Iowa City's 2013 Poetry in Public Project. She has poems forthcoming in Eunoia Review, The New Poet, Scapegoat Review, Untitled with Passengers, and Gravel Magazine.