The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: These Hollowed Bones by Amelia Díaz Ettinger

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Sparrow Hawk and The Nester

         Fálco sparvérius

I nearly reached the water
the longest and shortest
journey— even if I have a thousand
legs in all

mornings were full of dew
at first, I didn’t perish,
so many died before
my brothers and sisters
did they climb the grasses
to take a drink?

the thirst in my pinchers
was deep, but I wondered
what a full swig of water
be? Would it be green
and taste of pollen?

thinking these water thoughts
pierced the worry of the Kestrel
—that Sparrow Hawk
flying so close by me day by day
I thought of those droplets
and imagined collecting each one
if I could burden the big water in me

the rest came in a mushroom
it was hollowed by age’s decay
just a moment for a dream
of currents and rain and joy
the fullness of lichens
bathed in moisture
and tiny spiders that taste of glory

now my body waxes and wanes
others will get there first
so I settle to watch that kestrel
finally take her requite

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