THE BIRDS WE PILED LOOSELY • ISSUE 10 • JANUARY 2017

UNCERTAIN SONNET
by Cali Kopczick
You an electron haze, but no,
positive. Me wanting to be, I thought,
a center, a gravitational home,
but no. You a purr from Schrodinger’s box.
You not interested in science so much
as the writing you picked up by osmosis,
the fusion of city and sneaker; the litmus
of dirt on converse, smile on stranger on dosage
of espresso and club soda; me never less bubbly,
you never less focused. Still you open
your smile for anyone, your backpack for me,
your heart for the haze of a million beelike notions,
your heart a hive,
my heart a microscope trained on springtime.
THE SAND AND THE FORGOTTEN
ON THIS SIDE OF THE BORDER
by Sergio A. Ortiz
We hope the dead reconcile
with the dead, so they may achieve
a position among their peers.
May the student and the lady in a Stetson
make the same mistakes.
And the victim cross the street
side by side with his eternal executioner
without recognizing him.
Shadows or ghosts, both shall pass.
On the sidelines, the feast of the living
is still happening. Listen to the slight music
of the mountains of exile in silence
and don’t look back.
Fuck A Wall
America should build a big mirror
Anonymous Protester
This, and not another, is our story:
The time contemplated in the fissures of the sand,
The slow ripening of deserts without limit.
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