The Man Made of Pigeons

The Man Made of Pigeons collected pennies
and named each one after the names of his loves: Elma,
Amelia, Esther, Lamentations, Moses, Abraham, Roosevelt,
Velveteen, Black Beauty, Hurt, Moore, Most, Jewel, Alamo.
On green lights, he’d sing. On yellow light, he would sleep.
On red he would cry because of the pink in his eye and he would
die inside as the pigeons of his heart were peppered with disease;
starved, because he forgot to tell God that he loved him too,
and as manna fell at the speed of sound and hit the ground, in cold bows
beside his breasts, all his birds were dispersed into the pockets of man
and all of the lights he wished he had held a little longer.
New York City, 1932.