“helpless female / domineering male / is he significantly older? / why are the magpies in the poem?”
—instructor comment on student poem

It took eight years for me to name
what happened.

Name as you name a bird
you have become familiar with.

Day after day, you see the white
wingtips fanned out like a hand of cards.

One day, you look up the name,
or a friend tells you.

Then, you say it every time you see one:
magpie, magpie, magpie.