Significance of May 2021

This        time is faint
  haint gray, not quite
but quiet blue,        thick
with spirits.

Imagine a firing squad
instructed               to aim
               for the heart
center mass

A few will miss
but the whole gets it

A bird hits the window
at an art exhibit
               but is only stopped
for an instant

 rises

 as I return my gaze
to the indoor          sculpture
I find myself
thinking                 of my hands

forming tornadoes
this          month
kneading air

seeing tangled leaves
shadowed               on a tree

as a pendulum

Meaning of Stones

This heart I feel
is a bird
beating out blood
is a bird
I can press
into my chest
say is a robin
fat on worm meal
beak opens and closes
soundless        is a stone’s throw

let’s return
this heart         is a stone
in the caves of lascaux
your chest, my chest

or does not even exist yet,
but is the prehistoric drawing
of elk and deer and bison
animals past and present
this heart is a sharp stone
that scratches the surface.

Terri McCord is the author of The Beauts (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Other chapbooks include The Art & the Wait (Finishing Line Press) and In the Company of Animals (Stepping Stones Press through the South Carolina Poetry Initiative chapbook competition). Her poems have appeared in Chiron Review, Pinyon Review, Seneca Review, Jasper, and South Carolina Review. She is a 2001-2002 recipient of a South Carolina Arts Commission juried artist literary fellowship.