albatrosses take you home 

you fell asleep on the train ride home
& as you tell my this i think of how
albatrosses can sleep while flying.
i imagine a whole flock of albatrosses 
outside the train window like guardian angels.
everyone is falling asleep around me.
everyone is discovering surfaces:
a patch of grass, a friend's carpet, 
a corner of dusk. outside i'm jealous
of all the people & their slacken bodies--
how they can just kneel down on the sidewalk 
& dip into slumber. the truth is though 
that albatrosses don't travel in flocks.
they travel alone. they fly far out 
above the water & that's where they 
sleep in the air. their bodies carry them.
wings pumping behind their eyes. you fell asleep
on the train & were woken up by an albatross.
you don't tell me this-- it's just something
i know because it happened to me too.
your face pressed up against the window.
my face pressed up against the window.
the instances happening in tandem. 
on the other side of the glass, 
landscape whirled like
movie frames. the albatrosses danced 
& laughed at us on our train. their bodies
snipping through the air while we are bound
by the lines of a road. how i draw a line
from home to where you are & wish i could
walk it like a tight rope. even as you tell me
you are falling asleep. even as i listen 
i am turning into a bird again.
i need you to open the window & let me out
but you aren't sure what to do. 
our house turns into a train & we're rushing past
station after station. the last station 
was home & were not stopping. we're going
to rush off the edge of the island
& never come back. we're going to rush
into the ocean the albatrosses trust.
salt water lifting our bodies. 
feathers across my skin. this is 
a way of me confessing that
i'm scared you're turning into 
a great white bird. i want to be 
the only great white bird in this relationship.
albatrosses only lay one egg. round.
i see the egg floating in the water.
sitting on an open seat in the train. 
you woke up right before 
our station. you gathered you bags 
& stepped off onto the platform.