Resident dove, pink and gray, late
at the feeder, scatters diffused light.
Pinpoint sun, rose gold torch
brief through the lindens; dove
startles, chest thrusts, wings stretch:
translucent skin so thin—
flourishing, pulsing strobe
releases fuchsia, mauve:
electrified spangled fountain.
Radius, ulna a skeletal ivory.
I hold up my weak vestige between wrist
and elbow, thumb and forefinger
run outside, wanting to join
the blood rush
through filaments of flesh—
breaking twilight.
Grand display, dove and I,
delay the moment, as if
trying to be a phoenix.
