Inside a bird there are
chambers and chambers,
tunnels through scapular
bones, tarsus flues.
Tongue under mandible
thin, flat, and tapered.
Feathers in mantle top
down-folded wing.
Oxygen circulates
pale pair of lungs,
paths to esophagus,
gizzard and heart
(thumbnail-sized). Breast, of course,
puffed up with plumage,
quills the original
pinpointed art.
Words follow from this.
Do they say anything
mythic as music
while lizard feet cling?
Instruments grew in
the hollow where noises
—genus of throat—
found a painstaking form.