✨ Atrium

Who did the math?

Atrium

They’re here for people like us —
those two-foot metal origami birds

strung on wires that zag the hospital’s
atrium sky from floors 2 to 6

blue      green      red      yellow
like some primary color zoo meant

to calm the tantrum we cannot have.
We sit on the cool slats

of a fake wood bench. Century ferns
arch their pharaoh fans to cove us

in false harbor. Who did the math?
Weight of bird, suspension’s tension,

force of gravity, rust by rain —
at what point will rivets fail,

how long will those lines hold
those birds in their staggered flight?

—Tania Pryputniewicz

“Atrium” is from The Fool in the Corn, Saddle Road Press, Copyright © 2022. Used by permission of Tania Pryputniewicz. Photo by Zohre Nemati, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.