This poem was published in Axe Factory III (1990).
Reintroduction
—for Sarah Rutledge Birnbaum
who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge
With its streamlined dive
toward slate gray waves
your peregrine spirit swift
cries a rattling kek-kek-kek
near the cold eyrie
then silent Boated men
lift you with curved
hands feed you oxygen
concealed in a puppet
made to look like
your mother On land
others incubate you in
a carton lined with
red mittens Near your
closed eyes they place
wind-up alarm clocks ticking
like gopher hearts Happily
they note the statistics
of your progress You
will fly again
flyingtrapeze.net 