BRONTË’S BIRD

by Tila Neguse

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This is not a poem about Emily Brontë.
This is not a poem about Charlotte Brontë.
This is not even a poem about the other Brontë sister. 

This is not a poem about the gendered 
metaphor of caged birds or Heathcliff on the moors
searching for Cathy’s ghost
because
this is not a poem about Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights!
This is not even a poem about Kate Bush
though
she does share a birthday with Emily Brontë. And, |
see, 
this is a poem about birthdays.

This is not a poem about Mr. Rochester
or The Madwoman in the Attic.
But this is a poem about plain Janes and secrets 
shared between strangers. 

See,
this is a poem about a girl—like me,
kept in spaces we weren't supposed to be,
cowering in corners of dusty rooms
when we were small.

Going unnoticed,
we could read the stories of the Brontë sisters.
It was romantic, even. 
This is a poem about being Romantic.
This is Ars Poetica.
This is ekphrasis.
See,
this is a poem about Tracy Chapman,
who wrote a song called Matters of the Heart
in an album 
called Matters of the Heart
and hid a small gem for me to find
in that song that never played on the radio,
in that song she wrote just for me.
This is a poem for me. 
This is a song for me,
she said,
in a voice, so doleful, so melodic,

If today was my birthday,
I’d be reborn as Brontë’s bird.

And I thought, “Wow. Finally, someone gets me.”

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Tila Neguse is a poet and the Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2) at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College.