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    Because the Birds Will Survive, Too

    ​

    by Katherine Riegel

    ​

    ​

    I’m writing from after

    the end of the world,

    after apocalypse,

    after the breakdown

     

    of what we once knew.

    I am writing to tell you

    it is possible to survive.

    We didn’t all come back:

     

    that is not possible.

    Some of us hid

    and popped out again

    from holes as deep

     

    as the sky. Some of us

    learned to grow sustenance

    in our backyards, once

    the provinces of lawnmowers.

     

    We kept our pets—

    I know that is worrying you

    but we had to love

    more, sometimes,

     

    than we had to live.

    You don’t know yet

    what type of explosion

    I am talking about:

     

    will you, personally,

    watch the parts of yourself

    take leave of each other

    and trudge down unknown

     

    paths? Will the land itself

    break apart, crack into

    tree-swallowing fissures,

    mouths you nightmare about?

     

    I’m telling you yes.

    I’m telling you live.

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