Red

Red-bound book
lies open
ink spills onto the white page
turning it red,
like the bird pictured upon it,
the bird,
thought to be cardinal
struggles to displace the ink
from its paper wings,
slowly made soggy
by ink so red.
It dares the bird:
“fly away, fly away from here,
from me
from this page.
And I'll laugh when
you fail,
wings of mere paper,
what bird are you now?”
paper wings
lay limp against page
pinned down
by failure so

red.