I search my heart
for some kind of bird.
A swallow returning in spring
with a belly full
of stories.
But I find none,
not a sound or a blue feather,
my heart neither singing
nor fluttering,
as I lose my youth
spring after spring,
running out
of words.
The blank page is a dry dam
to be filled with rainwater,
where phantom shadows
of birds of absence
glide across.
for some kind of bird.
A swallow returning in spring
with a belly full
of stories.
But I find none,
not a sound or a blue feather,
my heart neither singing
nor fluttering,
as I lose my youth
spring after spring,
running out
of words.
The blank page is a dry dam
to be filled with rainwater,
where phantom shadows
of birds of absence
glide across.
Jackie Chou is a poet from Southern California. Her poems have recently appeared in Lee Herrick's Our California Project. She is the author of two collections of poetry, The Sorceress and Finding My Heart in Love and Loss (Cyberwit Press).