Mockingbirds Collection, pt. 2

This is another series of poems from deep in the vault (sometime in 2012)! The collection was inspired by the poem Mockingbirds by my good friend Katie Wisnosky, which serves as the first of the four poems in the collection. Each of the subsequent poems was written in light of the previous entries, and the result was four poems which are all wildly different from each other, yet still retain a strange cohesiveness built on a series of recurring images: a thematic watermark, of sorts. Enjoy!

Mockingbirds Collection, Part 2
by Monique Kenia

To kill a mockingbird,
I have tried: the wretched beast.
Clenching empty fists,
A drowning in the tide
But now, the smallest flutter of heart, trembling,
Twitching in my sweating palms,
Oval eyes; all-seeing beast,
Can it sense my hesitation?
The smirk upon its beak, unmistakable
And I’m half expecting whispers of “Nevermore”
So I can conclude that I am mad.
Was Poe as peculiar as I have become under the beast's
unbreakable bore?
Swallowing my tongue,
Squeezing my hands together
I have finally beaten the bird.
Its own game turned to rotten fruit,
Spoiling in the beast's very belly.
But the air thickens,
And I swear my mind is failing
I see the bird leering at me from my grasp
Frantic, my breathing labors in my chest
It can’t be! I had beaten the bird. I am the victor!
But my bones start to break and reform
I become small, my heart trembling with flutters
My skull rejecting my own eyes, replaced with ovals
I can’t keep hold of the beastly bird
It soars away, its song ringing loud in my head
Finding myself mimicking the tune.
I tried to kill a mockingbird once;
I became the very thing I loathed.

Click here for other entries in the collection:
Mockingbirds Part 1
Mockingbirds Part 3
Mockingbirds Part 4

[Image Credit: Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. http://www.repstl.org/news/detail/the-poignant-and-timely-to-kill-a-mockingbird-continues-the-reps-50th-season%5D