“the way a flock of black birds sets off in one large wave” by Leslie Contreras Schwartz (poetry, ’11)
An excerpt from “the way a flock of black birds sets off in one large wave” by Leslie Contreras Schwartz (poetry, ’11) published at The Missouri Review:
the way a flock of black birds sets off in one large wave
if a black
flutter
of bullets
takes the universe
of my child / friend / neighbor
family
away
just lay my body
down in a field
let it waste
let only the birds
remember my body
and let my child’s name
be contained only
in their unreachable
flight
because no one
will deserve to say
his name, not one person, […continue reading here]