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| Quang Nguyen Vinh |
The Pigeon
On a cobblestone street corner
in the marketplace of old Jodhpur,
three young men are crouching
around what the populace
commonly referred to as a flying rat.
The pigeon, shocked to earth
by a spark in the tangle
of overhead electrical wires
where it had perched,
holds one wing tightly against its body,
while the other, fully extended,
flaps in spastic bursts.
Sheltering the bird
from the wheels of motorbikes
and errant footsteps of pedestrians,
the men dribble bottled water
slowly, gently, over the quivering body,
trying to dispel the tremors.
What will happen to it, if they can’t
revive it? I ask my tour guide.
Then they will move it somewhere safe
and care for it until it dies.
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| Mary Kipps |
Mary Kipps enjoys composing in traditional forms as well as in free verse. A former Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have appeared regularly in journals and anthologies across the U.S. and abroad since 2005.
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