Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling?

Are you a bird
           in a woman-suit, Clarice?

Some pretty little blood sparrow—
such lungspan,
                          such bright palpitation:

redthread.      redthread.      redthread.

Peeled back,
                        you are the same shade
of robin-redbreast.

                            You are plucked up.

Ready for love
            to wear you like a girl-pelt

                                and preen.

Lindsay Lusby's poetry has appeared in Sugar House Review, The Lumberyard, The Feminist Wire, Fairy Tale Review, and Midway Journal, among others. Her chapbook Imago was published by dancing girl press in 2014. With Jehanne Dubrow, she co-edited The Book of Scented Things, a poetry anthology from the Literary House Press. She is the Assistant Director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College where she serves as assistant editor for the Literary House Press and managing editor for Cherry Tree.