PRAYER IN A CARDBOARD BOX
by Dara Mandle
She lured the rock doves
in colorless frocks to her tangle
of plastic bags, swelled their trills
until the soft notes scored
the shades of white and black
like an old movie.
When pigeons
scattered to trees she flew off
with them; flapped her worn-out coat
and broke into bodies; rose at once
with thirty pale under-wings
to sleep in sugar maples.