{"id":4557,"date":"2023-05-05T09:38:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T16:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=4557"},"modified":"2024-12-06T09:19:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:19:53","slug":"improbable-wings-by-katrina-roberts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/improbable-wings-by-katrina-roberts\/","title":{"rendered":"“Improbable Wings” by Katrina Roberts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"issue66\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 66<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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“Improbable Wings” by Katrina Roberts<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

After months<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the raccoon family finds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a loose hem of chicken wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grey brindled steel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wool, sticky viscera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already<\/p>\n\n\n\n

somewhere within<\/p>\n\n\n\n

my daughter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eggs that may become<\/p>\n\n\n\n

grandchildren<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One handy trick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is to use salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything is<\/em> personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How clean and soft beneith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

my stroking hand, how quiet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and still the two left<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are–as if practicing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for death. Once upon a time,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

one at a time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

each of these urchins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

curled within me. Three<\/p>\n\n\n\n

times over I’ve been a woman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with two hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wings wands stars tulle<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ribbons capes sequins<\/em>. All flash<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All flash and approximation. Tricky<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hands; thick skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And windows<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

cannot necessarily keep out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what the wind throws<\/p>\n\n\n\n

against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two laps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

round the vineyards<\/p>\n\n\n\n

make for sleepy kids. I hold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

close as before<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wake they will have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

flown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hierarchies of all–clouds,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cats, dreams, vintages,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hues. O, miracle of feathers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barred Rock silver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and jet. Ticked orange. White<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leghorns–tufts caught<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where they shouldn’t be<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in high holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One trick is to use tonic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One trick is to use sand. O fleet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of foot. O, fine as dew evaporating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pale brown shells,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: “How big is the egg I was?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: “Vast as wind you were<\/p>\n\n\n\n

named for and equally<\/p>\n\n\n\n

invisible.” O, utterly reliable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

osmosis. My own<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

words come back<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to baffle me. I’ve been loved thin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as a plush rabbit, threadbare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

even–shined to one more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

myself than ever<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like heavy gold icons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rubbed through<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to wisps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by the reverential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to think<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

our one downy girl<\/p>\n\n\n\n

whose carcass we have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

not found might come scrabbling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

today from underbrush<\/p>\n\n\n\n

skirting Caldwell Creek<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when she hears<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the pail<\/p>\n\n\n\n

grain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

singing.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4557"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37463,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4557\/revisions\/37463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}