Swift

Image Description: Birds flying away over a still beach. Blue sky with the sun streaming through the clouds.

By Sarah Fawn Montgomery

Hold me soaring love

like land splayed

beneath our beating

wings and bodies, flight

a vantage we use

like mating midair,

our beaks breaking

the skins of seeds even

though our mouths do not

attach to our throats.

Plummet free of time,

gravity a concept

invented by men

convinced love is an apple

or a woman in need

of being consumed,

but this love is avian

my swallow, my thrush

as ancient as hollow

bones in amber saved.

Love me quickly dove

thrash in our descent

eyes beaded with intent

as the ground swells closer,

and I will know we

matter when we scatter,

use our force to fly

away from each other

just before our entwined

bodies hit the ground.

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Bio: Sarah Fawn Montgomery is the author of Halfway from Home (Split/Lip Press), Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir (The Ohio State University Press) and three poetry chapbooks. She is an Assistant Professor at Bridgewater State University. You can follow her on Twitter at @SF_Montgomery