Confronted by the dusty outline of a bird hitting the glass, wings spread into a wide quarter-moon, feather marks still visible where it struck—This is enough to ruin everything. This is enough to press “Stop” and rewind your song indefinitely, but then you start thinking: If you had to be a bird, you would be a mockingbird made of lead, or titanium, and you would smash through windows unharmed while people cupped their faces in disbelief. You would fly past them, tear through their tedious rooms and explode the western wall.
Miranda Merklein‘s work has appeared or is forthcoming in South Carolina Review, Permafrost, VOX, RiverSedge, and others. Currently she is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg where she continues to edit and publish Journal of Truth and Consequence, a magazine for the arts.