Where the Birds Go
after Monte Dolack’s Avian Adventure
A long time ago
we saw lizards loving up
on the expanse of time,
the Process Migratory
moving in one direction.
A long time ahead
we’ll pull from ourselves
Vitruvian wings, their idea of movement
a verticality. A spread of magpie feathers
lines Darwin’s mantlepiece.
A long time now
staring at this crash site
in mountain shadow.
A pinfeather sunrise sings to Icarus, icon of
the fall, held by our myth repeating.
“The painting named Avian Adventure, by Montana's own Monte Dolack, was the inspiration for Where the Birds Go. The near-collage nature of the piece has always fascinated me, particularly the connections Dolack makes between humankind's gradual rise to flight with the mechanisms and beauty of black-billed magpies. He also secrets in dinosaurs, taking the farthest reaches of the past into our present, with flight in all its forms.” -Caroline Tuss
About the Poet:
Caroline Tuss is a graduate of the University of Montana BFA Creative Writing program. Her work has been published in Scribendi and The Oval Literary Magazine. Her work in Scribendi was awarded the Editor's Award for Poetry, and she's still riding that high. She lives on Montana's Hi-Line and her favorite word is spelunk.