Russell Brakefield: Flight Plans

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Flight Plans

I tell my students about the dodo
and the passenger pigeon
but they don’t believe me

that such animals could exist
or that beauty will ever be
at odds with abundance

when I’m with you
I become obsessed
with the intricate mutations

occurring inside your body
the unwelcome duplication
of cell to cell to cell

but on your scarf tonight
intricate birds
crane their necks in flight

a confetti of contours
and on your dress, the same    
a canvas of blue birds

singing in chorus
against the uncertain world
your laugh follows

a perfect flight plan of its own
perfect product of biology
portent only

for all the good left to come
your throat full of feathers
the color of a cloudless sky

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Russell Brakefield is the author of Field Recordings (Wayne State University Press, 2018). He received his MFA from the University of Michigan and teaches writing at the University of Denver.