Self Portrait as a Mourning Dove

← v2n1, Spring 2003

On the side of a desert road

a headless dove,

its body a basket of ants,

basket of creosote stems.

To live at all is to grieve

and from what life

did we gain this trust,

awake each dawn

to find the bright air

full again,

rustle and coo

in the widening palms?

grief mortality animals nature

Joshua Poteat

Joshua Poteat’s forthcoming book The Regret Histories (HarperCollins, 2015) is a selection of the 2014 National Poetry Series. He is the author of Illustrating the Machine that Makes the World (University of Georgia Press, 2009) and Ornithologies (Anhinga Press, 2006) as well as three chapbooks: The Scenery of Farewell and Hello Again (Diode Editions, 2014), For the Animal (New Michigan Press, 2013), and Meditations (Poetry Society of America, 2004). He lives in Richmond, Virginia. Photo by Tanya Lacourse