You Are Not a Hummingbird

your heart does not explode
one thousand times per minute
you carry only one weak heart
you have a task set before you
hang the door into the mountain
where your father’s ashes lie
carve the flowers
into the door and paint them brightly
one flower swallows another
do not wander
you do not know what comes after
the after beyond the door
but the mountainside is filled with humming
becomes a murmur
becomes an engine
of flowers
and you become an aeronaut

Elizabeth Threadgill holds an MFA in Poetry and a PhD in Developmental Education-Literacy, both from Texas State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Utica College. She is the author of the chapbook Tangled in the Light. Her poetry also appears in or is forthcoming from The Offing, Radar Poetry, Fugue, Empty Mirror, and elsewhere.