A Second Life

by Kit Steitz

the articulated skeleton

of the rooster with

his boiled chest,

posed in a shoebox,

in a proud arch-

It’s eerily appropriate

for this arranged affair.

Roots braid into his ribs,

knit through earth, red clay.

He becomes nutrients,

tree marrow, and seeps

into the sacred figs

of an awakening tree.

Kit Steitz is a poet in Columbia, Missouri. They have an army of geriatric cats and dogs and almost exclusively write their poems while sitting on rocks in creeks and glaring at people.

You can find them @AmazingKitikins.