Blackbird Archive
← v9n1, Spring 2010
Poetry · Volume 9, Number 1

The Dream Animals Long to Return

Joanna Pearson

when we‘ve lost each other, learned our new bodies,

we hold little in common: a taste for insects,

temperature. You roost. Your thousand-eyed squad sees

my plumed tail in the cave. I snort hoarse syllables, shake

dank air, dream coffee cup, toothpick, earring—objects

to summon you, restore our human shapes.

loveanimalsmyth
Joanna Pearson

Joanna Pearson’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Tar River Poetry, Gulf Coast, and Bellevue Literary Review, among other journals. Her work was included in the anthology Best New Poets 2005 (Samovar Press and Meridian, 2005). She received her MFA from Johns Hopkins University: Writing Seminars.