Aepyorinis

unlace me again

let me stretch my wings

for though i was always a flightless bird

and my breastbone has no keel

my wings are breathtaking

with the spectrum of raven-color

like a pool of oil at a gas station

you drove to in a thunderstorm

for another desperate cigarette

and found it was closed

i am a match someone lit rather than curse the darkness

i burnt their finger so they cursed me instead

i have only a pinch of sulfur

only the wisp of a prayer

don't disambiguate me

only stop to look at the light waves

bent by the heat of my throat

to reflect a distant object in the sky

and breathe

*Note- this is an older one, I wrote it around 2005