Canary

Sandy Benitez spent her childhood traveling the world as a military brat. Her poetry has appeared in over 100 print and online poetry journals such as Contemporary American Voices, The Clearfield Review, Tinfoildresses, Elimae, Full of Crow, Lung Poetry Journal, and Loch Raven Review. She currently resides in Wyoming with her husband, 2 children, and 2 chocolate labs. Her first book of poetry, Ever Violet, has been published and you can find out more about it (and her other ventures) at her blog. Yesterday Stan gave us crows and today Sandy gives us canaries, but you know these poems are not about birds. Read this and consider image and metaphor and language. What bird would you choose for metaphor?

Canary
By Sandy Benitez

Nine months, I carried a little
canary in my womb. Flapping
wings in slow motion, steadily
growing in a birdcage of pink
tissue and blue bars of veins.

Exhausted, I lay in bed. Welcomed
silence, that old friend. Together,
we perched our attention
on the gentle sweep, the fluttering, tiny

earthquakes, ribbons of waves
roll across the terrain of my
abdominal hill. Not a natural disaster;
natural perfection. I knew when

she was ready, she would leave
the cage. I would meet her, touch her,
hold her for the first of hundreds of times.
Hear her voice. Song of my heart.

 

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