photo by Biglaci via Wikimedia
after Linda Gregg
What knows to love? Not a mother
cowbird dropping her young into
another mother’s nest. She watches
nearby for signs of abuse, but never
interferes until her child is murdered.
Most of the time, the chick eats. Then
grows. Eventually flies to another’s
nest, still incapable of affection.
Like she knows she is adopted.
Like she knows she is bigger
than the rest, meant to be a bully.
Now, she’s older, feathers thinning:
two children later and she still flies
solo, moving from one man to another.
Always traveling. Always following.
All of her children loners. All of her
children singing another bird’s song.
Crystal Stone's poetry has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Occulum, Anomaly, BONED, Eunoia Review, isacoustics, Tuck Magazine, Writers Resist, Drunk Monkeys, Coldnoon, Poets Reading the News, Jet Fuel Review, Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle, North Central Review, Badlands Review, Green Blotter, Southword Journal Online and Dylan Days. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Iowa State University, gave a TEDx talk on poetry the first week of April and her first collection of poetry, Knock-Off Monarch, is forthcoming from Dawn Valley Press this autumn. You can find her on Twitter @justlikeastone8 and on instagram @stone.flowering.