HOMEBODIES

Kristin Emanuel

an alpine swift can spend 10 continuous months in flight.

while urban birds 

gather 

&knit together

curlicues of string

candy wrappers

fine jute &wiring

                nests meshed

with balloon ribbons;

the bowerbird

              seduces his lover

using fragments of glass

             utensils & keys;

golden-headed cisticolas

collect spiderwebs

             stitching

them through

holes 

             punctured 

in leaves.

maybe each morning

birds serenade

             entanglement

that rapturous weave

between bundle &thrum

hear them sing

about the homebody—

how unfetteredly 

they curate 

their own nestling.

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Kristin Emanuel has a passion for short form and hybrid visual poetics. Her work deals with memory, the dreaming mind, and nature. She received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas and is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Kansas.