Austin Alexis
The Magpie
suggested by the Monet painting
Does the bird merely sit on the fence
or does it attempt to press the structure,
shove it toward the snow?
Perhaps it wants to lift the wood spokes up,
up in a crow-soar over the ice-heavy landscape.
The creature's stillness propels its shadow
across the frozen expanse.
But the shadow is petite,
wielding no dominion over naked branches,
stray logs or the general barrenness:
this lovely desolation that exerts its song
without a magpie's cries.
Bio
Austin Alexis has published in "Lips," "Barrow Street," "Shot Glass Journal," "The Pedestal Magazine," "Paterson Literary Review" (forthcoming), the anthology Chopin with Cherries and elsewhere. His chapbook, For Lincoln and Other Poems, is from Poets Wear Prada. He received Honorable Mention in the Allen Ginsberg Awards.