Redbird

by Kara Knickerbocker

I.

Working in tandem/this break leads to woman/to a Redbird/I untangle my life from yours before/I can fly you should know/four years is hard to swallow/tell me what is left here to be saved?

II.

In this poem, I eat you whole.

In this poem I open my fist to your strange face,

lock my jaw around the fleshy part of your neck

use every word I know to strangle you speechless.

In this poem, I grow my hair out to tie her wrists together in the kitchen,

shave her blonde locks to the floor

watch those blue eyes break like mine did when you dared to leave.

I am so beautiful, you want to die now.  

I’m sorry, you’ll plead, and I’ll gnaw on your ring finger,

tilt my pretty little head back and laugh.   

* * * * *

Kara Knickerbocker is a poet and writer from Pennsylvania and the author of The Shedding Before the Swell (Dancing Girl Press, 2018) and Next to Everything that is Breakable (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Her most recent poetry and essays have been published or are forthcoming in print and online publications including: Cabildo Quarterly, The Laurel Review, and the anthology Voices from the Attic Vol XXII. She lives in Pittsburgh where she works at Carnegie Mellon University, writes with the Madwomen in the Attic at Carlow University, and co-curates the MadFridays Reading Series.