Ösel Jessica Plante, author of the poetry collection Waveland, earned an MA from the University of North Texas, an MFA from University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a PhD in poetry from Florida State University. She teaches poetry workshops at the University of Portland, Oregon.

Fredrick the Pigeon & Why I’m a Student of the “School of Misery”

by Ösel Jessica Plante

It’s because I keep pulling the saddest detritus out of the world’s hand,
like this pigeon who doesn’t know he should fly to Orlando; the coffee


shop kids have named him Fredrick; he squinches his head into his shoulder
looking like a millennial huddled beneath the outdoor table, rainbow tattoo


of feathers, iridescent, nonchalant. He’s really an attractive bird, but too young
for me. The band on his leg announces he already has an owner anyway.
People on couch
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