Cover windows, seal each frame
Close my heart and hide each name
Feathers panic in the box
Paper windows, bolted locks
If I love, I give death aim
I leave the children unnamed
Close your eyes—the birds say something’s near
I kept them nameless, scared to hold them dear
Locked my heart to keep us all alive
But closed hearts won’t help us survive
Forty-two hours downstream
The woods took on a dead one’s scream
One true bell cut through the trees
Dead voices begged, “Look at me”
Close your eyes—the birds say something’s near
I kept them nameless, scared to hold them dear
Locked my heart to keep us all alive
But closed hearts won’t help us survive
One cry; he strips the windows bare
Locks warning wings in frozen air
A second cry; he pulls blinds high
She gives me hers, then falls from sight
Beneath green lattice, wings go free
Two lost hearts live in names with me
I say, “I am their mother” now
My open heart becomes our house
Close your eyes—what hunts us waits outside
The birds fly free; the future can arrive
I say their names; the walls give way inside
An open heart is how we stay alive