Kathleen Ossip

BLUEBIRD

Today I sing in
a green and golden place.
My little eyes blink
in my little blue face.

My little song says
Truly truly.
The cat sits watching
coolly coolly

and no one minds if
I’m she or him
and my little heart beating
dee-dim dee-dim.

KATHLEEN OSSIP is the author of The Do-Over, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; The Cold War, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2011; and The Search Engine, selected by Derek Walcott for the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize. July is forthcoming in 2021.