exercising demons, pt. 2-- the patron saint of Route 5B

Nettie and her cataracts
ride the bus all day

she wraps herself in
blankets, weaves necklaces out
of broken bottles smashed and
then forgotten, clutches like a security
blanket the pen left behind on the bus
because a businessman was late
for a meeting--
Nettie finds lost things

she does not have a home, so
she makes homes for herself
in the things that she
finds:

just last week there was a bird clasped
so fragile, fragile as Nettie’s own
papery hands, to the pavement
its little eyelids frozen shut
Nettie untied knots in her throat
as she discovered that even
the swallows have eyelashes

Nettie keeps it now in her pocket
and makes wishes on each eyelash
she holds in her coat everything and
everyone that needs finding