All the Knots in the Earth

Vincent Hostak

February 4, 2024

“Our lives, our stories, flowed into one another's, were no longer our own, individual, discrete.”

-Salman Rushdie

Yesterday, I wrote about a work of art,

calling it “unapologetically kind-hearted,”

as if the line around fellowship shifted overnight, 

stolen by the pull of a single, darker sphere.

Today, two magpies lit upon a wire.

I imagined one remarking: “We must secure this border.”

Another, gripping the string pinned to the sky,

replied: “Why, is it moving?”

Perhaps they were overcome by vibrations

along the rumbling perch, their bird brains

assuming energy moves in one direction only,

as if treaties were meant to benefit only one village.

“The small brown birds will steal our food,” said one,

as if their privileged blue-white legions 

could never overpower the sparrows.

Some construct an enemy who favors their might.

“But, aren’t we defending against the Crows?”

The first fanned one great wing over its beak

and whispered a reply through stiff feathers:

“There is time to injure the Crow.  This is urgent.”

Tiny birds merged into a ball of collective warmth.

Geese overhead in their common costumes

Played joint acrobatics a magpie once knew-

before perching here like a foreman of a jury. 

Geese range in a region where borders vaporize

sometimes closer to the musica universalis.

While below, saplings stretch ubiquitously,

blind to all the knots in the earth.

Vincent Hostak is a poet, essayist, and media producer. He’s held long-time residences in Austin and Colorado, where he’s also worked in documentary and network television/film production.  His poetry may be found in the print journals Sonder Midwest (#5)/Illinois, The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and the 2022/2023 anthology Lone Star Poetry: Championing Texas Verse, Community and Hunger Relief. He is currently appointed to the 2024 editorial team at Asymptote, an international journal dedicated to the art of English language translations of contemporary world literature.  He’s a two-time Summer Scholar at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, directed by Anne Waldman.