the offense was claws in which I tore
the seams of treaded jeans we admired
            of hornbills suspended in the space
between freedom and constriction
and contrails the zest of the situation
lingered in halves the happening and aftermath
a baptismal drizzle of your departing hatchback
entirely left to the discretion of satellites

(originally published in Academy of the Heart and Mind, Spring 2023)