Becoming, by Alifair Skebe

Painting For Young People, by Max Ernst (Germany). 1943.

Becoming 
 
An open mouth bears piranha teeth.
Thin arms grapple reeds at the waterfall.
Next to the owl and the birch, she trapped
herself in a four-corner cell of sticks and
limestone. The reeds grow where her hair
would be. Nesting sparrows shriek at the
reflection in the moon-lit lake. Could be
a canary, hollow-eyed, bald. Would be,
though she pecked away her feathers. Oh,
if only to reach those branches suspended
in air, might make a home, escape.
A fish-bird, she waits, curls her bottom lip,
and avoids eye contact with the wood-
carved, spindle-hung pheasant without flight.

Alifair Skebe

Alifair Skebe is author of four poetry collections, most recently the books Thin Matter (Foothills Publishing 2017) and The Voyage of the Beagle, an excerpt (Benevolent Bird Press 2017). She is English/Writing Lecturer in EOP at the University at Albany.