HAWK

I love the way the hawk circles my apartment. He carries bits from the pond in his steel talons.
Then struggles for hours dragging pollution to the trees before finding a mouse. I think of that
teenage room—window shut, cartons and papers over mantels, my sister’s stuffed panda gazing
through aquariums and how she used to fling open the door without knocking, lifting shoes her
size nine feet would stretch despite my anger, watching me, carefully, as if to say, she knew me
before I was the messy type. As if to say, some things, like fashion, couldn’t go to waste.  

Months will go by, and the shoes will be placed quietly next to my door, soles shining, leather
warped, and I’ll rush through her room snatching tank tops and capris hungrily, drowning in blue
jean buttoned skirts, and she’ll smile with pleasure, coming up the stairs, as though she was
waiting for her little sister’s courage all along. 

DANNY

When Danny came to class 
everyone laughed  

He was different, after all 
and this was P.E. 

The boy with air Jordans hissed 
What’s wrong with you? 

The sweet girl smiled 
except, with a push   

And everyone wondered  
about cafeteria rules 

But before we could try it 
Danny gathered 

at the edge of the court 
hair spilling from his cap 

like a flock of seagulls 
making a fuss, it scared us  

all to pieces, his fuss— 
then he picked up a ball 

shaking fingers, all smirks 
round blue eyes on the hoop  

and made a free throw  
cleared with a whoosh 

everyone cheered, like falling rain 
asked him his name 

why his shoelaces go like that 
why his skin was so white 

before a teacher shouted behave 
tore our gold stars 

told us we’d grow horns 
never go far 

Monique Harris has been a healer, a teacher, a traveler, a dancer, and a graduate MFA student of Indiana University. She has work published and/or forthcoming in All My Relations, Yellow Arrow Journal, Talon Review, Torch Literary Magazine, Collateral, aaduna, and more. She currently calls Raleigh, NC home and can be found most days hiking across the beautiful state of North Carolina or daydreaming about everything under the sun.