Elijah Woodruff

1.
In that moment of pinions’ silhouette snared in the spring sun, I watched, listening to the sound

of flapping feathers beating back that surrounding, furling breeze just before its silent falling.

O how it tumbles

for just a moment.

2.
The past floats beneath the surface

of the moment,

turning/pivoting/slipping into mire

before rising to sharpness again.

3.
I am a moment cratered within a seventy-six-year period. And if that’s true, then I’ve already

struck middle-age. Fuck me, I must have missed it on the way.

Here is the truth I tell no one—either way I look, I see Time’s drowning wave—

I think that there is too much time

in this middle.

4.
as a boy, i thought of the freckles on my forearms as constellations.

how i longed to be the untouchable Universe.

today is the moment for that to dance naked in the sun.

5.
A baby bird was perched on the gutter. At the moment of its leaping, did it dream of drowning?

Or did it dream

of flight?

Elijah Woodruff (He/Him) is a high school English teacher and when he’s not working, he’s hanging out with his wonderful wife. His work has appeared in Beaver Magazine, Roi Fainéant Literary Press, and others. Twitter: @Woodrelli