“Bird” by Jenna Le

We heard her                              and came running

We heard her

wings blurred

We heard her                               fly up the metal chute

only to find herself                      self-entrapped in our laundry room

self-buried in our linen hoard

her exit route barred

We heard her                                throat burr

We heard her

wings blurred                                so we came running

feet bare on the red-carpeted stairs

We heard her                                so we herded her

We harried her                              toward an opened window, a soft sunlit square

amid the hard boards

We hurried her                              and harried her

and herded her                             toward the open air

our broom-waving horde             must have seemed to her a horror

for all that we                                heralded                                                     her liberty