Summer Owl

Evelyn Milburn

eyes open

street lights burn holes through night

bones balanced on top of my feet

owl in the tree outside my window

paper cup of chlorine water

lungs filled with summer syrup air

blood simmers through stretched veins

owl rattles in my ears

heat haze shimmers leaves from trees

silence of owl’s sudden wings

stars hanging dull against the sky

night darker than the inside of a closed mouth