detroit lake

frances quinlan

quick the hawk took the poor thing

just to the left of me

you were mid-sentence when i had to interrupt you

in order to relate

two grey stripes flew up out of sight

i mean one

the other no longer struggling

i cannot hear you laughing up the mountainside

unobserved

my voice grew

increasingly gruesome in the quiet

turns out

it turns out

one can lose nonetheless

looking for witnesses

miles from all that's between us at stake

algae blooms up in detroit lake

listening for my turn to come next

leave the same as i came in

more or less

across the table words fly

underdone they rarely collide

former wells are exhausted

so you pose the question

are pigeons ever cannibalistic?"