Bird in Hand

Being asked to move into time 
To places wishes and daydreams 
Into rivets and seams
Being asked to move back into categorical understandings of regrets
In order to fight against disintegration 
Carrying a placeholder for liminal spectrums
Reading somersaults into lecture
Move me, unmove me
place me unto y’all’s metaphoric understanding 
of the dreams which have yet been realized
Wish unto me, unfurl around, open
Gasp gasp gasp 
Cry out, there are ways of understanding 
that leave indelible marks onto membrane surfaces

We should all be so lucky to exist 
To not function
The eyes, cease to work
The throat struggles to open
The ears seek love remarks
The skin wrinkles 
to make space 
for the grandchildren we wish into the future
Au Revoir, my love: 
you have my best 
and my sword to cut through the meat of life. 
Hopefully, you have a better grip than me.
Hello long love, 
I seek you out 
amongst the fleshy cavernous walls where memory lies.

Copyright © 2022 by Jasmine Gibson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 13, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Inspired by Lee Scratch Perry’s ‘Bird in Hand’ and fellow poet Ed Luker’s reading series, RIVET, this poem is a psychedelic exploration of the slippery loss of time and time regained during the pandemic. Being asked to move, be still, and spasm, all the while. During the early stages of the pandemic, I provided therapy to adolescent clients and was in the throes of my Saturn return, Cronos time, and felt the psychic tension of constraints on myself and my clients. This poem is also about metamorphosis and getting older, watching the body and self transform to make themselves anew.”
—Jasmine Gibson