Wish Bank

Dayna Patterson

repository of first stars spied     fizzing like pop rocks
in night's purple mouth     cache of candles blown out
in a single breath     of air sprinting in the lungs
until a tunnel's glowing edge lopes to a slow     gold finish

treasury of eyelashes wisped from cheek's landing
and puffed into space     swirling with the dust     each wish
a new coin tucked behind a loose brick     each wish a feather found
snagged in grass     brassy blue     kept in case wings are wanted 

in case one feather isn't enough to fledge arms of flesh     or call back
mother from her country of bone     store up
each seed head blown     each month begun with rabbit
rabbiting across the tongue     seal them in cells     deposit them

in dream     log them in the heart's ledger     and keep
heedful register on the mind's balance sheet     a tally mark
for every single falling star     every nickel flicked into fountain's
burble     the weight of wishes like a fish's bright mail