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Sherwin Bitsui is the author of three poetry collections: Shapeshift; Flood Song, winner of the American Book Award; and Dissolve, and his work has been anthologized in Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. A recipient of the 2006 Whiting Writers’ Award, Bitsui was born on the Navajo Reservation in White Cone, Arizona, and is Diné of the Todicheenii people. He lives in Tucson.

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From Flood Song

by Sherwin Bitsui
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Alarm clocks, eagle plumes,
a moth’s unblinking eye
hover from left to right,
in the shrinking room
where the children huddle

        nibbling orange crusts

        from diesel-soaked butterfly wings.

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