• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Painted Bride Quarterly

  • About
    • About PBQ
    • People
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Print Annuals
  • Podcast
    • Latest Podcast
    • All Podcasts
  • News & Events
  • Submit
  • Shop
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Prose
  • Contributors
  • Current Issue

John-Michael Bloomquist: “Otium”

April 25, 2018 by PBQ Leave a Comment

Otium

Nests of vomit and shit knit the roof edges—
we threw stones at them like a favor,
a chore we’d do for free—
gathering the baby birds
that fell featherless

and blind. We decided to play house,
so we tucked them in
our shirts and walked to the kitchen

for milk. Our parents asked us how
we found the birds— in the sky
a plague of swallows screeched a bruise.

Filed Under: Contributors 97

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent News & Events

PBQ @ AWP!

PBQ Poet’s Publishing Premier: Carlos Andrés Gómez’s Fractures

Issue 100 Has Arrived!

Temporarily Closing Submissions

PBQ presents: Slam Bam Reboot

© 2020 Painted Bride Quarterly. Contact PBQ: info@pbqmag.org