Passenger

Walking round Chicago,

I have smuggled you as cargo,

though you are far away unknowing.

By the time we get to Salt Lake

I have packed you in my suitcase,

ironed the creases from my own remembering

She said Bird, why?

We wound our way to Texas

where I summoned remote hexes

and I sent them across dust and oceans.

In Phoenix, Arizona I had the notion

I might phone you,

but there it lived and died, a notion.

She said Bird, why? I said Bird, why?

Oh my satellite, oh my passenger.

We came up on Ohio,

I have you chewed on like a biro.

You are a sum I am no closer to deciphering.

We came up to Minneapolis,

all fizzy blood and twitchy fists.

I buried you in a day of snowing.

She said Bird, why? I said Bird, why?

Oh my satellite, oh my passenger.