Done, Undone: two poems by Michelle Shelfer

Hodu L'Adonai 01, art by the author, Michelle Shelfer

Swainson’s Thrush 

Your first rolling warble is followed by a  

gentler twin, then ascends a younger pair  

such that you carry your echoes with you,  

wrapping yourself ever in cathedral.  

Your space at dawn and dusk brings me  

round the years of Mays in waiting.   

The song sparrow scribbles  

lines flat on the page.  

And the crow scratches with rough  

chalk against gravel.  

But this liturgy—you are the architect 

within earshot who calls me to enter  

your shelter of green-templed touch— 

or better, 

to make of myself a whistling hollow. 

                             * 

Done, Undone 

Unclicking the buckle, 

the two sides pull apart, 

falling away but still 

in a strain of nearness, 

then less near— 

a fading hover. 

Now not so inclined to hold on 

but more to turn and lean away 

into distinct districts 

with diminishing common points. 

The majestic letting go 

exactly as they were made to do 

from the very moment one first split 

as cells inside the other. 

Yet somewhere far at the back of things, 

they are of a piece, ever one.   

__________________________

Michelle Shelfer, alongside her husband, Jerry, operates a non-profit called Prepare

a Room Ministries, which seeks to help those hurt by abortion and the culture of death

and to disciple the next generation to embrace life and the Giver of life. Her poetry has been published in Ekstasis, Foreshadow Magazine, Penwood Review, and Solid Food Press. She can be found at michelleshelfer.substack.com/

(April 2026 issue)