Alyse Bensel
—
Early Summer
Midwest wind has flung the nest
from the pin oak that towers
over the yard: one dead chick
is curled as if still inside
its shell, while another claws
at brittle grass. No mother,
I offer a shoe box
(sorry excuse for shelter)
and a saucer of tap water.
I know that this life
is hollow-boned, partial
to breaking from the start.
I fail to prevent the inevitable.
The bird’s heat will disperse
back into the universe,
brief and fantastic
like a solar flare before
an umbra swallows its shine.
Alyse Bensel is the author of Rare Wondrous Things: A Poetic Biography of Maria Sibylla Merian (Green Writers Press, 2020) and three chapbooks. Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cream City Review, South Dakota Review, and West Branch. She serves as Poetry Editor for Cherry Tree and teaches at Brevard College, where she directs the Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference.
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