Incursions
by Elizabeth Stoessl
They first show up as blisters
on the bird’s pink and sinuous neck.
When she looks behind the framed poster--
Audubon’s American Flamingo, 1838--
she sees its cardboard backing pocked
with pinholes, and a damaged wall,
ominous in its softness and its blistered paint.
And on the floor beneath the wall--
like sawdust— tiny tan pellets.
Sabotage by termites.
She’ll attack the wall with money and poison--
pesticides with a proven history of success.
The bird she can replace.
Soon
another marauder, another inside job--
silent, swift and aggressive.
Overnight, her own neck
swells, her voice vanishes,
her very breath in jeopardy--
stealth assault by hostile cells
that will have already made inroads.
She will fight back
and attack her entire body
with a welcome array of toxins--
proven histories
of success…. or not.
She will ally herself with the hopeful.
She will make plans.
on the bird’s pink and sinuous neck.
When she looks behind the framed poster--
Audubon’s American Flamingo, 1838--
she sees its cardboard backing pocked
with pinholes, and a damaged wall,
ominous in its softness and its blistered paint.
And on the floor beneath the wall--
like sawdust— tiny tan pellets.
Sabotage by termites.
She’ll attack the wall with money and poison--
pesticides with a proven history of success.
The bird she can replace.
Soon
another marauder, another inside job--
silent, swift and aggressive.
Overnight, her own neck
swells, her voice vanishes,
her very breath in jeopardy--
stealth assault by hostile cells
that will have already made inroads.
She will fight back
and attack her entire body
with a welcome array of toxins--
proven histories
of success…. or not.
She will ally herself with the hopeful.
She will make plans.
Elizabeth Stoessl lives, writes, and pays attention in Portland, Oregon, where she relocated from the East Coast and a career in public libraries. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Measure, Passager, Poetica, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California.