To make people vanish
tell them the truth

suddenly made aware
of their own precarity

they will fall, or 
cling to a ledge too low

It is the most dangerous
thing in the world right now

to be a sayer. It’s why
I follow my partner

on errands. Sometimes
she doesn’t know. But

it soothes me. I fear she 
isn’t safe, because 

she won’t swallow the 
bird whole, as you didn’t

in a courtroom full of ostriches
coughing up feathers

you opened your mouth
for the eagle, the kingfisher

and they couldn’t
grab it