by Haley Bell Keane
On my way to work, a brown ibis walking in the grass.
I almost pull over to ask about its feathering—do ibis have
brown plumage? A juvenile, maybe, or just
some other bird—which birds look like ibis? Would it
ruin this poem if I knew? Would it be a different poem?
Do I have the spoons to write another poem? Spoon-billed,
as it were—my friend, reading the first draft of this poem,
thought the ibis was dead. Now
I make sure all the birds I write are moving.
Haley Bell Keane is a third-year MFA student at Florida Atlantic University, where she currently serves as the poetry editor for Swamp Ape Review. She grew up in South Florida with a big mango tree in her backyard. Find her @horripilatious on Instagram and Twitter.
Gulf Stream Magazine 