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      July 19, 2018The Shape of Your ElbowJack McGavick

      Image: “The Sound of Wings” by Gretchen Rockwell. “The Shape of Your Elbow” was written by Jack McGavick for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2018, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
      all roads lead here so it’s no surprise
      under a hot sun the wad of gum
      on the cobblestone rebecomes its chewy self
      everything’s milling the everything grist
      of the big city so dark so inky on the map
      how could you have missed its eddying current
      above the sucking of the drain just days ago
      I stood with the dish soap in one hand
      scrub brush in the other when it happened
      just like that—pigeons bloom
      newly unique from their milling
      like the flock of bubbles caught
      for a second in my kitchen window
      before I flung myself car-first
      down the interstate to see you
      apparently in a park
      surrounded by pigeons in bloom
      the metaphor long pollinated
      some pigeon kits survive the shift
      withstand that sudden jostle
      and some can’t bear the pull
      of all that impossible space
      the new shafts of light on the cobblestones
      every time I blink I’m sure you’re gone

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the artist, Gretchen Rockwell

      “What a difficult choice to make! I had a hard time with the decision, but ultimately I’ve decided to select ‘The Shape of Your Elbow’ as my author’s pick. I love the striking and vivid imagery and the poet’s use of noun- and verb-play in this poem, from pigeons blooming to that beautiful line about’everything’s milling the everything grist.’ Something about the visceral detail and sound of this poem hooked me—by the time I reached the final line, I too was searching for what I feared to be obscured, lost.”

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