Homing

Give a thing a story and it is no longer a thing.

Pigeons, a friend tells me, once carried messages

from castles and their lovelorn inhabitants. Mail

by way of their once-lovely wings, the abalone

shimmer a meaning before the words. Eager

hands reached out for them, welcomed them.

What became of these flying Grizabellas? A story

she heard that winged its way along the internet

is one we all know too well: what was named

and loved lost its use and, thus, its purpose, was

cast aside to scurry and scrounge to survive. Yet,

they multiply, tar and feather every city surface.

Fate cannot conquer what takes her condemnation,

her crusts and sludge, and shit it back on creation.

J.D. Isip’s collections include Reluctant Prophets (Moon Tide Press, 2025), Kissing the Wound (Moon Tide Press, 2023), and Pocketing Feathers (Sadie Girl Press, 2015). J.D. teaches in South Texas where he lives with his dogs, Ivy and Bucky.