by Carl Kutsmode
Migration Patterns
The women sent East to work through the barren winter would find
in the dark early days of deep winter, brittle bodies of birds with yellow brows
whose systems had failed to regulate the cold, polka-dotting the icy ground.
The women took to picking the birds up and cradling them in the tender dew of
their armpits, which ended up thawing the birds with the heat born
of these castaways’ frigid isolation and endless toil.
As the weakening sun would settle down into the blackening sky,
the women would begin to feel a hysterical tickle of the birds’ feathers
on that delicate skin housed underneath their sore shoulders and
with graceful sweeps of their arms, as if reaching toward the coming moon and stars,
released the reborn birds
tilted their heads up
to watch the life they gave
fly away
getting smaller and much smaller
as unclipped wings
flapped toward freedom
carrying with them part
of the women.
Courtney Messenbaugh lives in Colorado. She likes kindness, curiosity, and toast, among other things. She’d also like to strongly encourage you to exercise your right to vote this year.
Carl Kutsmode is not a professional or Juried artist. He is a serial entrepreneur in the recruiting and management consulting industry. Following 9/11, he realized that something major was missing in his life – a CREATIVE outlet – which he soon found in art and photography. Carl maintains a consistent theme in his art, one of differentiation, transformation and forward movement.