the full moon rises on
the exaltation of birds in the dusk
of downtown LA
squatting on the parking lot roof
one urine smell stairwell from my car
I watch them begin their descent
spiraling in the air
falling ten birds at a time into a
fifteen story chimney
falling past cooper’s hawk and raven
come to pick
from the flock of thousands
they are flying between Scylla and Charybdis
like Odysseus’s sailors
a siren sounds
but their ears are stopped
they are creating the universe
from a crumpled galaxy
meeting death as simply as a star
