Ohio is swallowed by the snow
and we are fired south, we
leaden birds, we
speed over red earth
through the throats of mountains
we pierce and puncture
the woods, the streams, the hillocks
and hollers
drinking up more blood than
we need to function, until gravity pulls us
through the lowlands and the glades,
our bodies slick as butchers’ blades
through the belly of every winter
where warmth spills out,
where we survive.
Snowjays
