Bird Mask Girl
She only feels like drawing bird mask girls
lately, knowing more about beaks
than wings,
only what really is at issue is
the mouth.
The bird mask girls don’t have one,
the mask a closed construct
except for the slits the girls’ lashes
flutter against.
Why do we do what we do?
The bird mask girls wear
puffed sleeves.
These are arguably shaped like cumulous clouds
but are small and tethered to what is drawn
as clothes.
She is not conscious in this culture of ever wearing a bird mask.
It seems to her that the one she has perfected has a smile
and teeth that manage to look fairly white
against the lipstick, lipstick not at all like the sticks
birds perch upon
in air or sky, even barred sky.
The strings that hold the masks in place
are tied with bows
in the back.
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For Magaly Guerero’s prompt on Real Toads to write a poem based on one’s own prior work. I am slightly varying the prompt to write the poem about one of my past drawings (instead of an old poem) although I have also been about an old poem about posturing.
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