OBVIOUSLY DOCTOR, YOU'VE NEVER BEEN A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL
   - The Virgin Suicides

Punch bowl of coconut, pulp
            piñata still intact. She taps it
as she passes. Red circumference,
            crudely copied 6 am cartoon.
She sees herself in strung rope
            swinging from the rafters – still
intact. Her sisters lean against
            the railing, fingering their fists
as if a palm could feel the fantasy
            of squid and stout conquistador.

* * * * *

OF COURSE HE HAS A KNIFE. WE ALL HAVE KNIVES. IT'S 1183 AND WE'RE BARBARIANS
   - Lion in Winter

Stay skinny to avoid being eaten
by your king. If you bleed you leak
the ocean's dirty secrets; dolphins

gang-raped, whales giving up their sperm
to harpoon-bearing mariners.
Your teeth are showing, dandelion-crown

goes rotten in your braids the day
you strayed – a solar flare, a few new
freckles traceable above the clavicle

make schoolboys shudder. Damn
you're a looker, lucky to be born
in times when thighs are not an entree.

Robin Richardson came to see the horses and the horses were gone.


Published On: October 18, 2012
Permanent Location: http://www.forgetmagazine.com/121018b.htm