When Vultures Are in Good Spirits, They Perform a Dance

a headline poem + a video of vultures dancing, duh

Lays chips and gentlemen! Against all odds we have our weekly newsletter on time and unhinged as promised. For someone whose son is waking her up at 5am every morning + putting out a whole ass book + running a branding agency + making time for dumb jokes + trying to be a decent friend/sister/wife/(notsisterwife)/lover/fighter/angel/snacker—I, for one, am impressed with my consistency and dedication. (Reminder: I will toot my own horn any time i need it, thx!)

This video dominated all of my social media yesterday so I felt spiritually obligated to turn it into a poem. I did not realize vultures were 1) this large 2) this…hairy? and 3) this jaunty. Good for them, honestly. Pop off misunderstood queens! (But also, scram!!!!)

Here’s the poem—I wrote it this morning pretty lickety split going off of the phrase that came to me when I first saw the headline: “Death can’t dance.”

<3

Just noticed the apostrophe in “Joy’s” is backwards? HOW?! And theres a missing space after ‘weary’ but I’m not gonna go back and fix it because this is Subtack and we’re little loosey goosey rats on here (my personal philosophy).

Ok ILY BYE!

As Mary Oliver said herself, please preorder A BIT MUCH,

Lynds

P.S. I’m gonna be in Louisville Monday for Joy Sullivan’s book tour! I’m moderating! If you live nearby please come ◡̈