Poems from the 12-Hour Sonnet Contest: Wing loading, Frances Boyle

Frances Boyle is a noted Canadian poet and fiction writer. Her first novel comes out from The Porcupine's Quill next week. 

Wing loading

 A hawk’s spare journey, fencepost
to power line, wingspread remembering
all the places she’s been, the nest 
among poplars, the sway of the wind.
The distance she travels in an afternoon
broken by the amethyst sky, clouds
bruised and limping into place 
overhead, the gaps where the light 
shows brilliant in cracks. She hunches 
her head against the ruffling of feathers, 
the unsleeking of her plumage, barbs 
bent transverse to the grain by wind 
and wet. She hover-hops, rights 
herself. What home has she now?

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