"Bird Nest" by Erren Kelly

Summers, I spent riding

The roller coaster at funtown in saco, maine

It was all wood, the last of its kind

I had my first lobster as well

Summer of 98, I took to new england

Like a foreign country

My first time far away from home

I joked you could walk the streets

For days before you saw another

Black face

You had only seen black people on t.v.

But we walked the streets

Like everyone else

Bottles of wine illuminated our moments

you said you didn't care what people

Did, as long as it wasn't in your bed

I didn't think girls stood as tall as you

You lay like an artist's model

On the couch, on summer days

With nothing on but the radio

I spent all winter lifting weights,

It was worth it, just to pick you up

Like raggedy ann and carry you

Across the threshold

At a barn in Farmington

You showed me a bird's nest

The eggs were dappled like

Mosaics

I stuck my fingers inside you

You tasted like copper pennies

I held in my mouth a long time or

Like rainwater

All summer, I spent stroking your

Hair like a tune