I don’t know what caused the bird
to seize, but its tiny body heaved

on the sidewalk just outside the airport
doors. I bent down to look at it, but what help

could I be? I know nothing about dying
birds and the reasons they do, just that this

one was both a bird and dying. With
its small yellow beak opening, its eyes

closed like moving towards something
we don’t have the name for. I stood up

and stepped away. There was nothing
I could do for it. The bird was going

to die. A man came by with his large
rolling suitcase and I watched as the wheels

turned over the bird’s small body.

Danielle Shorr (she/her) is an MFA alum and professor of disability rhetoric and creative writing at Chapman University. She has a fear of commitment in regard to novel writing and an affinity for wiener dogs. Her work has been published by Lunch Ticket, Vassar Review, Hobart, Driftwood Press, The Florida Review, The New Orleans Review and others.

Rebecca Palmer has been especially interested in the poetic and expressive possibilities of the photographic medium. A recurring theme in her work is affirmation of our human connection to the natural world. She is a native Californian and is based in the San Francisco Bay area. During undergraduate years at Stanford University, she studied painting, drawing and literature. She earned a MFA in photography at San Jose State University. Her photographs have been exhibited in California as well as in national and international exhibits. Her work is in many private collections and is held in public collections including the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, California; Art Center Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain; and the Bibliotheque National, Paris, France. Her work is represented by Circuit Gallery in Toronto, Canada. Website: https://www.rebeccapalmerstudio.com