BeansNet: I Could Use a Tune Up (1997)

I Could Use a Tune Up

Any old wings will do.
A cropped or color-shy set,
even a bumbling pair, peacock adorned,
that my sun might flap from a basement.
I'll trade you mine for just couples of yours,

ground feathers,
mine are children and crack in sparrow's breeze.
And nearly mottled at the thought of a nest.
And nearly south from hers whose I've held.
I know--I know she's so darn cloud-worthy,
a Swallow with her rivers,
but I'm inborn a different way of falling up,
more broken loops that end in dive,
then winging again to

lovemaking

a sun from my basement;

Of this ache i'll climb,

or this end i'll be.

t. j. m. may 1997