Done and Undone

All your life you waited 
     for some tiny bird – a wren, 
a cardinal - somewhere in the world 

whose birth would change your fortune. 

But now that chirping
     creature of joy is dead, buried in the earth
with its lovesongs & there’s nothing left 
     nothing for you to wish for nothing nothing

but a tree perhaps,
     some weird-shaped, storm-bedraggled thing 
whose falling – whenever it happens, 
     and wherever – will correspond precisely 
to your own 

quiet return to the earth. 

— M.P. POWERS

M.P. Powers is an Illinoisan/Floridian living in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of The Initiate (Anxiety Press, Fall, 2023). Recent publications include the Columbia Review, Black Stone/White Stone, Mayday Magazine, and others. Find his artwork on Instagram.