from 1977-2050

All the space around me
is taken up with canaries.
There is no way to know
if it is day or night.
When I move my arms
and when I walk forward
or backward or sideways
I knock many canaries
to the frozen ground
and then step on them
and crush their hollow bones.
It feels like I am stepping on a bag of marbles.
I don't mean to step on them.
I don't mean to kill them
but I don't know how else to get anywhere.
When I step on a canary
a small dark part of it
grows upward into my leg.
It is a loud feeling of hollowness
that attaches itself
to my thigh bones.
It gets louder and heavier
as I step on more canaries.
My legs become too heavy with hollowness
so I stop walking.
It sounds like a million accordions
locked in a cave.

Copyright © 2009 Zachary Schomburg All rights reserved
from Gulf Coast
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission