Missive
This is my dead letter
my notebook of sifted seeds
my kraken spilly of ghost thoughts
In the middle of the night
when it is soft and
varnished as a boat’s hull,
when the angels
and dogs have gone to sleep
I send you a grey gull to
lick feathers into your lovely eyes
I finger the ventricles of your
mended heart, stitch one button
to your mouth so you can
see again, so you see me again
Nicki Heinen is widely published in magazines and anthologies, including Magma and Bad Betty Press. She hosts Words & Jazz at the Vortex Jazz Club. Her pamphlet Itch is out with Eyewear Publishing, and was an LRB Bookshop Book of the Year.