I Heard the Sparrows Aging
I heard the sparrows aging
a devouring call
a broken spring, there, turning.
a sputtering of what sounds like keys
the lost just within a-reach
Tenants of the past nearly a-hold
Oh, the horse and the rapture;
The horsefly and the rupture.
to a sleepy pungent
a beautied terror
a backward giving
and the rain coughing…
Let the gutter turn operatic.
I will sing of the heart
(previously published in Forklift, Ohio, Spring 2015)
It’s Nice To Be Understood, Right?
Cheapo,
we would sing,
in moments odd and
unhandled,
I discouraged the fear
I faced the thrilled heartless
that hop
that rise
that stranger faring fine
I gloss for you; I do,
and I, too, please the remnants.
Remnant A
Remnant B
See, all my remnant loves.
I want to kiss this freely.
Scent it into shape.
What faint?
What clap?
What tangle of eternal?
leave me to wiggle in it
cold
scold
scant
Leah Umansky is a poet, collagist and teacher in New York City. She is the author of the Mad-Men inspired chapbook, Don Dreams and I Dream and the full-length collection Domestic Uncertainties. She is the curator of the COUPLET Reading Series in NYC. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in such places as POETRY, Thrush Poetry Journal, and MAGMA. Her Game of Thrones inspired poems have recently been translated into Norwegian by Beijing Trondheim. @lady_bronte
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