Exposed

See the skeleton through the wings?

It’s hollow

Full of air

Os and COs

1s and 2s

Fanning out the membranes:

Glowing furry windows

Filtering streetlights, night’s lights

Murky with pigment, veins

Bony crosses framing leather panes

Cruising Zephyr’s highway

Membrane turned outside in

Cupped upward like a woman

Dark and warm

For once not pummeled

By elements

The Os and COs

The Hs

The 2s

Pepper the virgin lining

Instead

Whipping past a frenzied head

Scampering, teetering

Trying not to scatter to the ends

On Zephyr’s bends

The 2 membranes teeter

totter

See how she flies blind?

Dark and listening

For once not pummeled

By elementary

Ohs and ahhs

Exclamations—shrieks

Surprise at being

Naked as a baby

Blind as a bat

Free as a word