Christopher Kennedy

Confusing Myself with the Whippoorwill

Today, I was a madness of regrettable actions. At the convenience store, I eyed the cashiers warily as they slouched in round-shouldered, teen-aged aplomb. Their youth not yet wasted. Try not to think was my mantra as I left through the slow, antagonistic electric doors, but the whippoorwills disturbed me with their calls, despite a 93% decline in their numbers in the Empire State. And where have they gone? Camouflaged beyond reason so as to be nearly extinct? These questions led me to my own desire to disappear. At home, filled with envy, I chopped some vegetables for later when the seasons have changed and my plumage has darkened, my face of feathers and slanted light a veritable mirage.

Author: Christopher Kennedy

Christopher Kennedy is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Nietzsche’s Horse, Trouble with the Machine , and Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death. His work has appeared in Grand Street, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Mississippi Review, McSweeney’s and many other journals and magazines.

Plume: Issue #24 June 2013