I began my life as a baby but we won’t begin there.
You don’t want the fear to be over-determined.
There is a presence absence issue.
Stuck with or pushed against silence.
The silence around events.
The dove event.
The raptor event.
I have regrets.
They are all over me like the weather.
Guilt not totally determined.
We will begin with what is determined.
The bird flies over your head.
It’s covering something.
You want to run.
Emily Pettit is a poet, artist, editor, and teacher from Western, Massachusetts. She has taught and lectured at Columbia University, the University of Iowa, the University of Massachusetts, Elms College, and Smith College. Emily is an editor for Factory Hollow Press and jubilat. Her first collection of poems, Goat In The Snow, was published by Birds LLC and her second collection of poems is forthcoming.