HEARING MYNAH I HEAR MYSELF

if I split mynah’s tongue what kind

of prayer would I hear myself say

there were birds outside the window

the flock amassed they were trapped

in their feathers and watched me

clean dead bugs out of the lamp

when this string of words unravels

the mynahs will not know what to say

here I did not teach them to speak or

bear anything aloft my little electrical birds

they could have been mediators but then they were

merely here when it came time

I didn’t know how to knit the shape of them

or mend didn’t know how to make

an instrument out of duct tape

I didn’t know if I was given a tongue then

or if the mynahs were given

tongues whether we would truly understand

what they said