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Half vulture, half eagle
by
Marge Piercy


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I saw it last night, the mortgage
bird with heavy hunched shoulders
nesting in shredded hundred dollar bills
its long curved claws seize, devour.
 
You feed it and feed it in hopes
it will grow smaller. Does this make
sense? After five years of writing
checks on the first day of every month
 
it is swollen and red eyed and hungry.
It has passed from owner to owner,
sold by the bank to Ohio and thence
to an ersatz company that buys up slave
 
mortgages and is accountable to Panama
or perhaps Luxembourg, cannot be
communicated with by less than four lawyers
connected end to end like Christmas
 
tree light sets and blinking in six
colors simultaneously by fax.
It says, I squat on the foot of your
bed when the medical bills shovel in.
 
When your income withers like corn
stalks in a Kansas drought, I laugh
with a sound of sand hitting a windshield,
laughter dry as parched kernels from which
 
all water has been stolen by the sun.
Each month I wring you a little more.
I own a corner of your house, say
the northeast corner the storms hit
 
when they roar from the blast of the sea
churned into grey sudsy cliffs, and as
the storm bashes the dunes into sand
it washes away, so I can carry off
 
your house any time you fail to feed
me promptly. Your misfortune is my
best gamble. I am the mortgage bird
and my weight is on your back.
 

From What Are Big Girls Made Of? (Knopf, 1997)
Used with the author's permission.

 


 

Marge Piercy is the author of 20 poetry collections, 17 novels, a short story collection, a memoir, and five nonfiction books. Her most recent poetry collection is On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light. Marge holds several honorary doctorates and has read her work at more than 575 venues around the world. An enthusiastic gardener, she lives on Cape Cod with her husband and several cats. Learn more about her at http://www.margepiercy.com.

                   

 

 

 

 


Post New Comment:
Larry Schug:
A magnificent poet sharing a magnificent poem.
Posted 06/27/2024 06:12 PM
anne.lehman2929@att.net:
My favorite author--thanks
Posted 06/28/2014 01:37 PM
Glen Sorestad:
Everyone who has bought a house on time knows this vulture -- a wonderful image!
Posted 06/27/2014 12:14 PM
msruff:
Exquisitely crafted and powerful in its imagery.
Posted 06/27/2014 10:55 AM
Dianalt:
It takes a first-rate poet to come up with a metaphor as fierce--and effective--as this one. Stunning! Diana Anhalt
Posted 06/27/2014 10:47 AM
paradea:
I love this and most of Marge Piercy's work. "To Be of Use" is one of my favorites.
Posted 06/27/2014 10:42 AM
phebe.davidson@gmail.com:
This one carries on its back a huge terror as contemporary as it is enduring. May Piercy never lose her eye, her ear, her talent that points us from image to truth.
Posted 06/27/2014 05:58 AM


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