Keelless. Extinct.
An ancestor
of the sandhill crane.
Gone like the giant
cursorial owl.

So many questions
they aren’t around
to answer.

Did they speak
Taíno? Ciboney?
Did they roll
their R’s? Trilled
Tapped. Every muscle

in the tongue
gets involved.
Every muscle in the body

shouts out
once in a while
when the tension
of desire and air
pressure shift.

Pectoral girdle.
Alveolar ridge.
Cloacal kiss.

A colt
with an unchanged
voice won’t purr.

Who’s to say
which hammock
will hold willing
suspension of infatuation
the longest. I refuse

to ask if
the tobacco
will be
rolled into a cigar
or packed into a pipe.

If I were a bird,
I would swim better
than fly too.