Chickadee

Madeleine Gallo

This afternoon I spotted a chickadee within a magnolia leaf,

her small body curved inside the green gondola

— fetus to mother.

I thought how much she resembled a banana's innards,

and how delightful it would be to unpeel that waxy thickness

and behold her hidden, singing form.

But next I thought how you will probably say this is phallic,

and so I keep my vision to myself, for other minds,

maybe.

Nothing phallic here,

bird on leaf

song in shell.

Madeleine Gallo is currently a first year MA student at Wake Forest University. Her work has appeared in Susquehanna Review: Apprentice Writer, Fermata, Sun and Sandstone, Belle Reve Literary Journal, The Pylon, Sigma Tau Delta Review, Into the Void, Litro, and Rattle. After graduation, she plans to pursue a PhD in Contemporary American Poetry.