Flight response

My hands are birds

with wings and ruffled feathers

I tilt my ear 

to hear their song

the discord of pain and thrum of adrenaline 

I watch the clouds,

the blurry faces of strangers

drifting over and above me

Around me, the birds flutter, 

blood and grease clotting their strange feathers 

waving people away, wiping tears

getting tangled in the chain