"A Model of Charity," "The Strange Bird with Two Heads Who Heard Nothing," and "Territorial (Quiet)"

A Model of Charity

they started with good wishes
for the object

they blacked their faces
and fasted

indispensable to the dream of governing
by commerce

instead of arms

The Strange Bird with Two Heads who Heard Nothing

Two heads on a bird
facing right and left.  When the left saw
a sweet pink fruit
the bird swooped down
to pluck it.  It plucked it
and sat beside the river
eating it.  The right head said
could you spare some please
but the left, knowing they only needed
one stomach
said nothing.  The right head

said nothing.  Soon
soaring high again
the right side of the bird
saw a sweet pink fruit
so the bird swooped down
to pluck it.  But the bird in this tree
hearing it’s poison, it will kill you
plucked it
and sat beside the river 
eating it.  The left head said

please stop, don’t eat it.
But the right, knowing it’d
been cheated
and feeling good now
said nothing.  And that is how
the bird died.

Territorial (Quiet)

Carrying off
another meal, one that

loved, his or her bloodied feathers
I haven’t seen me

for months, though I’ve dreamt it
consecrated it, with unlimited means

songbirds
shoot one and then tell me