Plumage

When your chest
tubes come out

I’ll lift you
to the clouds
to join
the other
long-necked birds

                    crane

with liver
damage

               heron

in need
of a transplant

          loon

that carries extra
bones

Drag
your talons
back
to bed


Conyer Clayton is an Ottawa-based writer, musician, editor and gymnastics coach. She has 7 chapbooks, 2 albums and won The Capilano Review’s 2019 Robin Blaser Poetry Award. Her debut full-length collection is We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite (Guernica Editions, 2020). More: conyerclayton.com