It’s like getting three wishes and wishing for less wishes.
It’s like designing a flag the exact same colour as the sky.

How does she think of these?
It would seem she walks around with brilliant similes 
looking for antecedents.
They are so good that the similes have stopped serving
their objects and strut around in sequins
while everything she tries to speak about 
slouches in khaki.

A few stats, 
in her first two collections,
there are over 500 similes,
that is on average 6 similes per poem.
211 similes for love,
125 similes for sex.
And it should be mentioned
a strange preponderance of kites and telescopes.
If you are ever lost,
and aren’t sure what poem your are in,
look around and if there is a simile about 
love or sex, and a kite floating oddly above,
then there is a 98% chance you’re in a Hera Lindsay Bird poem.

Check out other work in the Practicing My Writerly Gaze series here.