this morning
i slipped outside
into the sheer
inconceivability of tuesday
all at once,
my purpose collapsed
and i just fell to pieces
on the cold, sharp air
blown out
over narrow streets,
above rectangular buildings,
past flocks of dark birds,
i felt so wide
and complicated
that i didn't really notice
the easy way my particles moved
into the spaces right in front of them
and instead of insisting
that i knew something
about what it's like
to be a bird,
i only wondered,
dimly, dumbly,
and for the first time,
what it's like to be
a flock
