What Bird What Brother

the duplex yard
post divorce bushes
my mother pruned

limbs all crooked
but it was hers
she left my father

in another town
and signed the decree
thou shalt not

ever touch me
but gave him
visitation rights

my brother’s BB gun
his first guilt gift
a rifle pumping

air and ball bearings
he shot a chickadee
out from her nest

then pointed
the metal barrel
straight for me

I cupped her
my back to him
witnessing

the warm life
wind leave her
the sweet way

sorry flies out
of their mouths
after they shoot

 

Naming Ceremony

Secret burial plot
Dug ever deep
Behind the maiden eye.

I come here often
To wonder and pray.
I always wanted

To keep you.
What name can I say
For seven weeks?

Pink Teardrop
Love Shrimp
Swimming Lee

Golden Tadpole
Wild Yonder
Bluet Elegy

—

Tammy Robacker graduated from the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University. She won the 2015 Keystone Prize for her chapbook, “R”. Her poetry collection, Villain Songs, is forthcoming with ELJ Publications. Tammy’s poetry appears in FRiGG, Tinderbox, Menacing Hedge, Chiron Review, Duende, The Lake, and more. tammyrobacker.com