animal poem

You taught us to make space for you

to adjust     books 

           and beds for your        perches

close all the windows 

     fill the room with twigs, leaves

and your nibbled paintings 

     to slide   routines 

          augment zoom calls with bird call

      after-school song-stop 

   hourly wipe downs of sills, surfaces 

to open up    purses

      for vitamin-enriched millet sprays

  apple slices, sunflower seeds

            doctor  visits

to make room       in our hearts

       for a curved beak 

   verdant shades of green

    tinted pink, red, aquamarine 

       for your name to nest

to grow around

   the gap you left 

                                       when you left

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