Alex Gurtis

Dead Birds

Finches used to perch
on a concrete block by my car
every morning when I drove to a job
I hated. I wasn’t married then and still lived
in an apartment with a woman
who drank romance out of glass flutes.

My wife and I don’t talk
as we walk to the park. The distance
between us is the longing
for the yearly song of the red-shouldered black bird
that migrates annually to the lake’s cypress skirt. 

We once dreamed of leaving to chase its contrail.
Now we sit in silence. My wife and I
melding into a metal bench
wondering where all the birds have flown.

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Alex Gurtis is a poet and critic whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in HAD, Eunoia Review, Saw Palm, Rejection Letters and others. A ruth weiss Foundation 2022 Maverick Poet Award Finalist, Alex is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida and co-owner of the independent bookstore, Zeppelin Books.