Short History of Kites

Spring shows up with a costume of turtles.

Its ears full of newts. Its audience

of scientists.

At first we just eat it. The day a boat

we are dreaming and that boat

doing business.

Spring appoints hammerings:

the afternoon unsettling sun dresses

and on the street corner

for a moment one hat plying the air.

The first kites were also

the first movies—

cutouts against a collaborative sky

held by a line that pictures

a horse beginning

to lope or a dragon

rushing the sunrise, the morning

not wounded. Hand held.

Some people talk about life like a sandwich

or a bandage, someone’s mule

eating an apple.