See, slick and glistening,
\nsculpted to wood,
\nrounded bodies
\ntogether pressing,
\na rustling topiary of birds forming
\nan aviary of cruelty,
\na gruesome monument
\nto the commanders
\nof nature.<\/p>\n
Finches and budgies.
\nEgret and owl.
\nParrot and eagle.
\nOsprey and macaw.<\/p>\n
Flash of crimson cardinal wing.
\nWho would sing?
\nWho could sing?<\/p>\n
A common chicken is pulling
\non one leg, shaking,
\ntightening the tiny noose pegging
\nher to the very end,
\nthe loop a tourniquet quietly cutting
\ninto the leg, a red stain seeping
\ninto white feathers.<\/p>\n
In the dark,
\nthe snowy owl
\nturns his head away.<\/p>\n
And then:
\nThe now one-footed hen falls off the trellis
\nlike pulling a zipper
\nand one by one the birds attempt liftoff
\nall still tied to each other, straining
\nagainst the grim order
\nof opulence.<\/p>\n
What sacrifice! What love for the flock!
\nNoble creature, she finds herself
\ntugged aloft by falcon and goose,
\ncrane and vulture, great bustard and greater rhea, kites
\nwho take to the air trailing
\nthe one-legged chicken dangling
\nlike a charm.<\/p>\n
The sun rises on an odd formation winging
\nneither north nor south, just flying, pulling,
\ntogether in both sacrifice and need,
\nbound both in resistance and in flight,<\/p>\n
the parrots muttering and the ravens cawing and the hawks screeching and the songbirds all together calling:<\/p>\n
Free! Free!<\/p>\n
And the chicken, bleeding, thinks: Yes.
\nThis is what it means to be free.<\/p>\n
Featured Image Credit: Artwork by Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this poem, Tempest member Dana Cloud<\/strong> explores the nature of solidarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":8718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[403,402,162],"class_list":["post-8702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-writing","tag-birds","tag-resistance","tag-solidarity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/dana-poem_v3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}