From Listeners at the Breathing Placeby Gary Miranda

 

The One That Got Away


Man, you got a bird where your brain
should be, he says, talking to me.
I say: Perhaps you'd like to exp]ain
that figure of speech for the whole class.

He says: A bird, man, a bird--thass
one o' them things with wings what flies
around. You, you jes sits on your ass,
but your brain it flies around, goes

flap an' flap--like this. He shows
me then with his arms, doing flap-an-flaps
between the aisles like a trained crow's
bad imitation of a little black

boy flying. Then he flaps to the back
of the room and out the door, free:
free of the class, that doesn't crack a smile;
free of the teacher, who sits

on his ass, a bird where his brain should be.