Tessa McHattie

The Birth of a bird

I feel death in every poem. The sons and the daughters, the brave and the bold, dancing the nightline into the mouth of the ravenous giant. And us, scribbling our compendium of endings. Motel artwork and water lilies on the side of the road. Lathering the walls with a pacifying grey-blue. Reiterating yet again the sincerely held belief that I did see a manatee off Coney Island on the Fourth of July three years ago. Slurping up my watermelon strawberry kiwi sugar icee. The world is replete with garbage and divine offerings, I shouted to the handsome devil. Hair caught in the sticky blue syrup on my sunburned face. I was shivering with the mystery of a cave painting.

Tessa McHattie is a Canadian poet residing in Brooklyn, NY. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Disappointed Housewife, Lost Balloon, and Shoegaze Lit, among others.

Tessa said the following about her poem:

I've never been to Coney Island, but I think about it a lot. Every time I’ve tried to go since moving to New York, something comes up, plans change, the weather stops me. And this is probably for the best, because what if I went and there was no magic, no manatee, no Americana Witch to tell my fortune like she has known me my whole life? This poem is about the desire to hold onto myths and to insist on wonder and magic as a means of survival--to paint the walls blue.