The Bird
Regina O’Melveny
One spring day in fourth grade
I saw a mob of kids in the schoolyard
hitting a boy to the ground. His name was Alan.
An ugly boy with buck teeth, huge freckles
splattered across his face and buzz-cut dull blond hair.
He’d said something. I don’t know what
but my friends and I jumped in. I hit
his hunched back hard one time with the fist
that no longer seemed mine then stood back
as the mob descended further upon him.
I heard him cry, saw strings of spittle dribble
from his mouth to the gritty ground,
saw the yard monitor from the corner of my eye,
urgent red slash running toward us
from the other side of the playground.
I felt my small soul bolt from my mouth,
a terrified bird trapped in a crawl space
that found open vent and fled.
Two years later in sixth grade
I asked Alan to dance at a class party.
I was a homely skinny freckled girl
with frizzy brown hair, but still he said yes.
I wanted the bird to come back
to fly into my mouth and nest in the hollow
ache under my heart. I wanted the bird to come back.
Contributors
Many talented individuals are featured in the West Marin Review. Please click below for this volume’s contributors.
- FRONT COVER
- Lia Cook Binary Traces Young Girl
- BACK COVER
- Carol Whitman High Tide at White House Pool
- PROSE
- Muriel Murch Farming the Flats
- James Misner Three Short Stories
- Rick Lyttle Harry Truman and Me
- L. L. Babb Chuck Lange Kicks Ass
- Linda Gebroe A Play in Four Pitches
- Barbara Heenan Grabbed by the Pussy
- Lina Jane Prairie Kelp Work
- Morgan McDonald Mobile
- Elizabeth Wing The Plankton Expedition
- G. David Miller Mad Dogs and Americans
- POETRY
- Reeva Harrison In Pursuit of Thingness
- J. C. Stock Mountain Bliss
- Nancy Cavers Dougherty Inversion
- Amy Elizabeth Robinson Reading Michael Meade’s Why the World Doesn’t End…
- Jorge Bravo The Universe
- María Baranda From Dylan and the Whales Translated by Forrest Gander
- Mary Winegarden Long Marriage
- Derveaux Baker Second Chances
- Jon Langdon When It Counts
- Regina O’Melveny The Bird
- Claire Millikin Christian Girl
- Rebecca Foust all this beauty
- Jim Nawrocki On Reading The Encyclopedia of Creation Myths
- Wayne Hill The book about walking
- Luis Lenz-Fontan Life
- Barbara Swift Brauer Fog / Trees Returning
- Sarah Anna Paden Hoshigaki
- Stephen Ajay Windless and By Our Own Hands
- Kathleen Evans Crossing the Line
- Brian C. Felder Cold Calculus
- David Swain Border Crossing
- Elizabeth Wing Pierce Point
- ART + ARTIFACT
- Lia Cook Binary Traces Young Girl
- Emely Garcia-DeLeon Point Reyes Seashore
- Wendy Goldberg Inside Out and Early Spring Clearing
- Charles Robinson Granddaughter Isabel Robinson
- Thomas Wood Tomales Bay at Chicken Ranch Beach
- Torrey Baron Shadows
- Julia Lucey The Bear and the Bees
- Jennifer Thompson Can’t Face It
- Abbey Wenk My Happy Place
- Pam Fabry Blue
- Patricia Thomas Negative Dark Matter
- Bear Lombard Our School Fox
- Stella Bailey White Horse
- Dana Hooper Jigsaw
- Anne Hudes Dolphin Light
- Mimi Robinson Kyrgyzstan Yurts
- Barbara Lawrence Point Reyes Lunch
- Danae Mattes Horizon and Harbor
- Betsy Kellas Invocation and Barriers and Boundaries 3
- Vi Strain Moments of Natural Beauty
- Amanda J. Sanow Red Hill
- Jo Margolis Grid with Calligraphic Frame
- Kate Kozubik Red Tree with Bird
- Glenn Carter Knot
- Marianne Reger Bouquet
- Marsha Balian A Day at the Races
- Gene Crowe Purse, SF MOMA
- Jane Zich Running Deer
- Alex Farnum Kelp Work
- Anne Faught Pages from a Life
- Jon Ching Indestructible
- Eleykaa Tully Hope
- Laurence Brauer Fog, Trees, Mt. Wittenberg Trail
- Jean Warren Coming Together
- Caitlin McCaffrey The Claw Family
- Amanda Tomlin Bees
- Harriet Kossman Mabel, Cleo, and Peter: Morning Meeting on Pamela’s Deck
- Sherrie Lovler Inspiration
- Barbara Treichler Gregor California Pipevine Swallowtail
- Mark Ropers A New Day
- Carol Whitman High Tide at White House Pool