The One Mockingbird Only Sings at Night

Far cars, numerous.
Lullaby (by a lull)
and I pretend (I-10 as ocean).
And dream (DNA remade)
and dream. Maker
(remake me), better me
this time.

And wake
to a chorus of one
courting through
alarms, beeping,
trilling silver, song.
Mating call after call
(no answers, no takers).
And now it collects more
and further from nature.

Desperate thing (who is the pitied?),
what did you think would happen
(happiness). Was this your dream?
What you long for has long
left here (and what you left for—
not long for here). Because
you didn’t think it through
(you never do, do you, as you do).
Get a life (fail to).
Get a move on (been eons). Curse
I served (in vesper). Asker
(no answer). Prayer (no taker).
Little mocker (my broken maker).
What is taking you so long.

Oh aren’t you something (I wish I was).
Aren’t you someone’s (if I was)
I would not try someone else’s
song. How sad (they said). My heart
goes out to you (this long?). No I
won’t be long (that same song),
or someone’s song (oh but
my heart goes out to you).

Little mocker—
Broken Maker—
what will you make of me now.
(But I am of you).
Chorus or curse,
I am of you until
my heart goes out.

Copyright © 2021 by Hannah Sanghee Park. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 13, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“So much of struggling is trying to send out hope but having grief echo back. Sometimes the reverb is distorted, and sometimes it’s truth. Then the mockingbird is an albatross. The title, however, is matter-of-fact.”
—Hannah Sanghee Park