After a photograph by Terry Evans
Taxidermist’s artworks, corsages,
lie in a hatbox.
lie in a hatbox.
Horrible beauty of talons
and shiny thorn beaks.
and shiny thorn beaks.
Loosened petal-fronds
release hues of night.
release hues of night.
Stiff quills disassemble
and collapse into absence
and collapse into absence
as an underground seam
of darkness rises.
of darkness rises.
and then