Shelby Pinkham | Issue 6, Spring 2025

swallows as in real / real as in wench wings fluttering / vibrating realness / rustling of the actual factual / whir slogged corporeal magpie / wet raven / a kind of wetness proving reality of living crows / slosh, raven, skitter / an inching corvid / teetering on the precipice of are you ok? / whore wings ruffling pork / open open open close open open open / what seen here? / sunbathing, wing-drying / ultrasound flapping / beak screams reverb off the soil / oxygen of a freelance trick twittering / tolerating your tree bark attitude / tumbling tree lungs / glob of blood / uproot to take hold of feathers / to memory bird memory / to sexualize evolution / to empty your seed / to empty your mind of desire / a release / tight chest / a release in tight branches / a leaf drips / a leaf flutters up / you want pollinate / want eat / want memory / want sleep / want sleep / want sleep / want hold / want cry / want grow / want live / want want want / as in, am I here, a twittering camgirl / as in let’s go dismantle birds / as in some things must be real / birds as in ripping roots / a disturbance in festering networks / chirp / skybirth / a birth of skies / endless cheepcheep / reflexive leaves / dirt dragging against skin / dark night / corn crunch / warm gravel / what memory tree what memory? / to fixate on luxury erasure / to hum / to reorder jackknife frequency / to grow feathered gender / to reach slutty ornithology / to grab binoculars / to want to know taxonomy / to feel conservation biologist / to breathe wildlife surveyor / to transplant ecology / to rip out chicks from the nest / to incise bird chests / to eat their little hearts /