I must have been looking for birds

by Kennedy Coyne

We’re talking about Joy Harjo. This must have been yours, she says. We’re on the phone for the seventh time today because I like to talk and she likes to listen and I tell her about our dog who she hasn’t met yet but is still hers and she tells me about our cats who are my cats but not as much as this new dog. She’s been writing about birds - eagles and owls and peregrines - but doesn’t realize it until I say, hey you’ve been writing about a lot of birds lately. In capital letters she says WELL I DON’T MEAN TO. While we talk about Joy she pulls out How We Became Human, shuffling pages over the phone, three eagles on the cover. She insists it’s mine, and I say no. I’ve never read her. She flips to page 100 - The Flood - where inside is a slip from Raven’s Used Books. It is hers. I must have been looking for poetry, she admits. And my dog chews on Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings. Teeth marks in the corner of For a Girl Becoming.

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Kennedy Coyne (she/her) is a writer based in upstate New York. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in Indiana Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review Online, and elsewhere. She was a semifinalist for The Adroit Journal's 2023 Anthony Veasna So Scholars. She received her MFA in Creative Writing and certificate in Arts Leadership from Virginia Tech. She is working on her first novel. Find more of her writing at kencoyne.com.