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Poem of the day: The Lammergeier Daughter

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The Lammergeier Daughter

That night, I opened your wardrobe and found
a trophy of vultures, their necks pierced

by hanger hooks. I saw at once
that you hunted everything I loved—

the griffon, the Himalayan, the lammergeier,
who haunted our home with wheeling cries.

I peeled off my skin then, and robed myself
as a bird bride. Veiled in morning mist

I married the sky. Of course, you aimed
at my heart, but as the bullet tore through me

I wrapped my talons around your skull,
lifted you high, and dropped you as a lamb

drops newborn from his mother
onto the snow-fleeced earth.

I landed beside you on the quilt.
And when the flesh-eaters had done their work,

it was I, your lammergeier daughter,
who devoured your bones—look, Father,

how they slide down my throat like rifles.


By PASCALE PETIT

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