The Dove
Today I saw a soft gray dove, as elegant
as the most elegant Frenchwoman, perched
on a fence rail as if all Paris were spread
before her, who as I went by, neither flew
nor called. And what passed between us
I understood: I was not worth her throat.
And nothing—not mist nor thicketry
nor windy leaves, not even the darkest
depths of night can conceal her now.
I would know that silence anywhere.
The Racing Pigeon
Once I was let hold
a two-day old chick,
warm and pulsing
in my hand, and as
I stroked its beak,
I came to wonder
about home, and
whether if I were
abandoned between
deep-set hills that
would neither kill me
nor make me happy,
I would give up
everything
I had
to fly there.
Poetry by Lola Haskins has appeared in The Atlantic, Christian Science Monitor, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, London Review of Books, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. She has published 16 books, 13 of which are poetry. Her most recent collection, Asylum: Improvisations on John Clare (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), was featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Past honors include the Iowa Poetry Prize, two NEAs, two Florida Book Awards, narrative poetry prizes from Southern Poetry Review and New England Poetry Review, a Florida’s Eden Prize for Environmental Writing, and the Emily Dickinson Prize from Poetry Society of America. She serves as honorary chancellor of the Florida State Poets Association.
Header photo by Elninho, courtesy Shutterstock.
