An Ostrich’s Maternity

She stuck her head into

The sand, to rotate her

Eggs. Then hid them, so

The lion couldn’t find them.

For her, a lion could die

Suffocated by the rope

Of her neck. And the claws of

Her feet undo the two-head snakes.

She pruned their bones hurrylessly

From the mane of her feathers,

Her blood watering the seeds of her being.

She’d die to let them become griffins.