Old Butch in GLAAD volunteer shirt feeding pistachios to pigeons in Union Square
BY PARKER SERA.
I like the idea that this was the errand you needed to run today
I like the idea that pigeons are not altogether forsaken by human beings
A friend told me that the man in her city who feeds the pigeons
asked her if she could look in on them while he was out of town for the week
We shook our heads, don’t you know they’ll be ok without you?
They are wild animals
But that’s not true, really.
Pigeons are feral, meaning
once we belonged to each other
just like the wild horses out west once
upon a time and furthermore
we all need each other
Just because we’ll be ok for a week apart doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look in.
Drinking wine on the Empire Builder
BY PARKER SERA.
I felt myself begin to fill
with a slow abiding joy,
enough inside
and so loved
I begin to get my sea legs.
The train rocks us deeper into the high lonely places,
toward the mountain
Soon I will walk 100 miles,
a broad rough circle
of gains and losses,
just to strengthen my legs
and broaden my shoulders
Parker Sera (she/her/they) is a queer, Jewish poet, actor, theatremaker, puppeteer and teaching artist from the Upper Midwest. Her work has appeared in bedfellows magazine, the Rising Phoenix Review, Indolent Books, and been featured at the Kelly Writers House, WXPN radio, and Philadelphia reading series' You Can't Kill a Poet, Poet's Row, Scribes on South and more. She lives in New York City. You can find them at parkersera.com, and on Instagram @parker.sera.