L&I

A woman named Robin, working as a bookkeeper, trips and falls into a paper shredder. Before anyone can unplug it her arms are ribbons and her face, pulled through the little blades, is hamburger. She completely fills the black plastic bin.

Two coworkers faint, three run from the building, and Joe, who used to work in a turkey processing plant in Iowa, empties her remains into the recycle bin out back.

Garbage day is windy and the lids to all the bins blow open. All day birds come and go with shreds of recycle in their beaks. When Robin wakes she is a nest high in a maple tree. She contains three eggs. The breast feathers of the mother are warm and soft.

***

Linda Malnack is the author of two poetry chapbooks, 21 Boxes (dancing girl press) and Bone Beads (Paper Boat Press). Her poetry appears in Prairie Schooner, the Seattle Review, The Ilanot Review, Menacing Hedge, and elsewhere. Linda is an Assistant Poetry Editor for Crab Creek Review.