April Poetry | Jill McCabe Johnson

In recognition of Poetry Month, and to celebrate and highlight our treasure trove of Orcas Island poets, Orcas Issues is pleased and honored to again offer daily poetry during April.

First Kill

— Jill McCabe Johnson —

I positioned myself to the right of the bird,
partly to block the view of the other chickens
watching from their tractor,
partly because I am right-handed
and needed to thrust forward with the knife.

Its body nestled in an upside-down cone,
the head dangled helplessly as I pulled the neck taut,
pointed the tip in front of the spine and
forced myself to drive the blade deep, a sickening
grizzle of metal through feathers and flesh.

Dogs shake a bird to addle its brain.
Eagles drop their prey, letting gravity
finish the kill. I used a knife and my hands
then watched the blood drain pink
as rubies or raspberry syrup.

That afternoon a colony of carpenter ants
swarmed the house. Thousands dotted
the siding and eaves, while in the backyard caterpillars
strangled the branch ends of every deciduous tree:
dogwood and gingko and plum. Robins raided the garden

and even the hummingbirds dive-bombed the heads
of those who ventured too close. I stood back
as far as I could from the feeder, and forced myself
not to think how red its nectar was,
how slowly it drained—how rare and how sweet.
First published in the poetry anthology Help Wanted, edited by Elizabeth Austen (Floating Bridge Press, 2014).