How to Rescue the Stunned Bird by K. T. Landon


keep it safe the book says
in the dark in a warm box quiet

 

until the battered body
knows itself again

 

then hold the terrified heart
in the palm of your hand

 

only
long enough

 

to let it fly up into
darkness, leaving you

 

to wonder always
if you got it right

K. T. Landon is the author of Orange, Dreaming (Five Oaks Press, 2017) and received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, Spillway, North American Review, Narrative, and Best New Poets. She is a reader for Lily Poetry Review.