Passenger

Walking round Chicago

I have smuggled you as cargo

Though you are far away, unknowing

By the time we get to Salt Lake

I have packed you in my suitcase

Iron the creases from my own remembering

She said, bird

Oh, why?

We wound our way to Texas

And I summoned remote hexes

And I sent them across dust and oceans

In Phoenix, Arizona, I had the notion I might phone ya

But there it lived and died a notion

She said, bird

Oh, why?

And I said, bird

Oh, why?

Oh, my satellite

Oh, my passenger

We came upon Ohio

I have you chewed on like a Biro

You are a sum I am no closer to deciphering

We came to Minneapolis

All fizzy blood and twitchy fists

I buried you in a day of snowing

She said, bird

Oh, why?

And I said, bird

Oh, why?

Oh, my satellite

Oh, my passenger

Oh, my satellite

Oh, my passenger

Hey, hey, hey