Rara avis

Guide to Avian Architecture:

What we built to hold us, the year's memory,

menus and daytrips, after a while

came loose. Those nights

we balanced on each other's mistakes,

cradling our wine:

twigs those branches now.

Who knew what lived there?

She she she called one bird.

What lived there knew its place.

Another bird splits its nest wide,

hinges the gap with spider silk, learning

to give, to give, to give until breaking. Only then—

either one gives until breaking or one does not.

Megan Snyder-Camp.