Birds Tripping. By Susan Tepper

Death the unexplained 

shadow striking

the bar’s polished surface;

you take a sip, another—

expect a burst of knowledge

to fly in your face like 

birds tripping 

after a long journey 

continent to continent—

Some, we find, constructed

for the long haul.

Keep it going; answers

come out of

your own worst transgressions.

Not from under rocks

in a glass or 

slippery love songs.

Susan Tepper is the author of eight published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent book just out in June is a road novel titled “What Drives Men.” It was shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Nominations, a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for the novel “What May Have Been” (Cervena Barva Press, and currently being adapted for the stage), NPR’s Selected Shorts Series, Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award, Best Story of 17 Years of Vestal Review, Shortlisted 7th in the Zoetrope Novel Contest (2003), Best of the Net and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker.