Archipelago

Ryan Teitman

A bird is a kind
of island. In flight,
a flock is called

an archipelago.
At rest, a peninsula.
When two flocks

meet, they are called
communion.
Used in a sentence:

Two flocks
met and became
a communion
.

A surgeon opens
a body with a scalpel.
A scalpel is a kind

of bird: small,
thin, flightless.
A flock of scalpels

is called a bouquet.
Children are a kind
of book. We take them

from the library
and put them back.
A flock of children 

is called a collection
A body is a body
until it falls into ruin.

Then the body
is a kind of nothing.
A nothing is a kind 

of bird: rare, sweet 
voiced, carnivorous.
It eats the eggs

of other birds.
It’s the island I go to
when I fall into ruin.