What Kind of Bird Changes Its Name

Andrew Hemmert
| poetry

 

was what the search engine recommended before I could
finish my intended question—what kind of bird changes
its song? The bird in the old oak over my parents' pool
goes through phrases in approximately five second
intervals. It is a busy song. It is nothing special
says a hanger full of blinking servers whose thinking requires
a mountain full of coal be dynamited every day.
Some mountains were once considered gods. Some kings were considered
gods, then carved up in the public square. This is progress
towards democracy, which is a name America
has never worn well. The search engines eat what we feed them
and shit out tailored advertisements. These advertisements
perhaps are more evocative of ourselves than our names
though don't we go on saying our names, mockingbird?

Andrew Hemmert is the author of Blessing the Exoskeleton (University of Pittsburgh Press) and Sawgrass Sky (Texas Review Press). His poems have recently appeared in magazines such as Copper Nickel, Gulf Coast, and West Branch. He lives in Thornton, CO.

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