Lottery

I bought the word antediluvian and filled

my Honda with pairs of strange birds

I bought back from extinction. After

you left, I bought two passenger pigeons

for my passenger seat and two Lord God

birds before they boarded up the bird stores

and spray-painted CLOSED FOR HURRICANE.

I’m selling it for parts: ante- -diluvian.

Choose (1) the before or (2) the deluge.

Baby, do you want a pigeon or a passenger?

I don’t need cash, so they’re a steal. Within

the hour they're reversing interstate lanes.

Take the bird or the God or the Lord. For you I bought the name it asks to go by and this storm.

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KRISTIN ROBERTSON is the author of Surgical Wing (Alice James Books, 2017). Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review, and Five Points. She teaches creative writing at Tennessee Wesleyan University.