Ode to Periquito, Bronwyn C (September 2026)

Ode to Periquito

Reason dictates that this doesn’t matter

now—if ever it did. If I’d done right,

if I’d nothing to forgive, if you were

not rendered with hack twists of tongue so slight.
 
You weren’t small, not to me. It wouldn’t take

courage to speak what I do know, just sense

enough to carry what belief you make

through my teeth. Such hope needs no great defense.
 
I wish you were still here. This is an exercise of

what I didn’t say till it was too late. Remains, stuff

I won’t let go of, things that live in my eyes.

history won’t remember you, so supposed,

but I will. Fragments of your book still hold. Like, “stay gold.”