Lifted into Eden
\nby
\nRadiance Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
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The starlings lifted as one from the telephone lines
\nalong 611 South, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
\nThey cooperated into lemniscates, contracted into rippling circles,
\nopened into sky, skimmed the ground, blossomed into spirals, surged
\nin praise, swirled in layers, formed manta rays and whales,
\nthen morphed at once into a twist of string, resolved
\ninto a snake, poured, like sand in an hourglass, then loosened
\ninto the curves of a woman\u2019s body, then a billowing cloak,
\nthen pulled apart, now reassembled, now a smudge of charcoal,
\nthen black ink swirling in water, then subsided, like
\na sigh made visible, until, after heaven, they were absorbed into the trees.<\/p>\n
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