FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT by Cord Moreski

It’s the first morning of January 

as I walk out to my front porch 

chewing on sunflower seeds 

to kill the urge of having a smoke

I eventually sit on my steps 

but still feel like I’m constantly moving 

even though it’s technically a new year

bills paid for at least another month

the phone actually quiet for once

I get distracted all of a sudden 

when this big sonofabitch

this red-tailed hawk emerges 

and explodes into a bush of sparrows  

chasing them across the street

until they all flutter away 

except for this one little bird

that takes refuge behind my feet

I toss it a seed while we both sit there 

in the aftermaths of our befores

both trying to fight for a breath

without having the urge to fly away.

Cord Moreski is a poet from the Jersey Shore. Moreski is the author of Apartment Poems (Between Shadows Press, 2022), Confined Spaces (Two Key Customs, 2022), The News Around Town (Maverick Duck Press, 2020), Shaking Hands with Time (Indigent Press, 2018), and Stay Afloat Inside (Indigent Press, 2016). He is currently working on his first full length which will be released later this year.