HALIE THEOHARIDES

My Friend

this great horned owl
couldn’t understand other girls
but he understood me

he lives closest to my house
at night all the hours
he says Mary, Mary
do you know you’re alive?

if the other girls had seen him before
if they had any kind of sense
they would have said something about it
because he’s a great horned owl
he sends words into your head
then he comes to your windowsill
and bites your arm and grabs
your face and says Mary, Mary!
do you know! and you say
yes, yes I’m alive

Halie Theoharides is a poet and visual artist from western Massachusetts. She is the current managing editor of jubilat and getting her MFA at Umass. See more at thenightgown.tumblr.com/writing.