from 13th Balloon by Mark Bibbins

from 13^th Balloon

Imagine a bird who lays her egg

then picks it up and flies without

landing until it hatches

Imagine a thousand

of these birds chopping away

at the soggy light

 

Since you died a thousand birds

have daily flown through me

 

each leaving behind an egg

      some of which rotted

some of which hatched

releasing more birds that pecked

at my skull

            but not generating the noise

            and pain one might expect

                        It’s more like hearing

                  someone typing

            an endless suicide note

            in a room at the end

            of a carpeted hall

 

Always one egg remains in me intact

and each time I yank it out

each time I crack it and crush it and throw

away the shell

      it reappears whole

 

I pull it out and pull it out

 

I break it a thousand times

but nothing is ever inside

 

I carry it and carry it           I do not land