What My Mother Does After My Father's Death

She finds a bird
fallen from its nest,
crashed like an apple

to the ground.
Sliding her fingers through
the rain soaked grass,

she scoops the quivering 
ball of feathers into her palm.
She takes it inside, to the same kitchen

where she wept
over her dead husband 
every night for nearly a decade.

She feeds it baby formula 
from an eye-dropper, whispering
I believe in your wings.

I watch from behind a doorway,
the broken bird, its needful cries,
all of that delicate weight 
resting on the kitchen table,
my mother,
her precious grief.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2025

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