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birthday by William Bortz

William Bortz

Current
lc electric / photo: de

birthday

have you once felt inspiration from something ceasing / once, I saw a bird collapse out of the blueness it was once kept in / it plummeted, in silence, and I thought how / nice it would be to find rest on this afternoon / I am mostly enthralled in newness / when I am chained to something / unmoving / I baked my mother a cake on her 57th birthday / because I believed it would be her last and that her own hand / would bring the sort of bitterness to her mouth / that her heart could not survive / each birthday before / we were sure the call / the one that echoes / would ring out / ironically, as a morning bird / greeting a new day / and it would be new / in the way fresh absence swallows sunlight and time and half of every / breath we take / I never thought of her as a / bird / but as the sky that once / held me / I am the bird / and no one has ever made me / a nest / not even for one night / not even on my / birthday
 

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William Bortz

William Bortz (he/him) is a husband, poet, and editor living in Des Moines, IA. His work appears or is forthcoming in Okay Donkey, Oxidant Engine, Empty Mirror, honey & lime, Turnpike Magazine, Back Patio Press, and others.

Author: William Bortz Tags: poetry Category: Poetry June 15, 2018

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Comments

  1. Sam Silva says

    June 15, 2018 at 8:06 am

    THIS IS PRETTY REMARKABLE. I hope there’s more to come from this guy.

    Reply

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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