Three Poems

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY CHILDREN

for Oliver

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I could smell the sea salt, when they brought me to the ship, and my mother’s perfume, and underneath that, more salt. She led me down holding my hand, gave me to the captain who would take us all to our new home. “She can’t see,” said my mother, putting my hand into the captain’s hand that felt like bark. “She spent too much time reading in the dark.” The kind captain squeezed my hand, put a carrot in the other. Down in the hold I met the rest of the children who had not listened to their parents’ words: The dirty boy with potatoes growing under his fingernails, the cross-eyed girl, the boy who touched himself until his thingie fell off. There was one little liar who had been mauled by a wolf so badly, the others said they couldn’t stand to look at him. His face, where it should have been, felt like a pile of wet rags. Then there was the girl who swallowed so many apple seeds, an apple tree had grown up out of her stomach, up her throat and out through her mouth, so she had to walk around with her head tilted back and mouth open like a little baby bird. At night, we could hear her choking and crying, and sometimes the boy with no face would go and lick the tears off of her cheeks. I swear, those were the most delicious apples you ever tasted.

BECAUSE

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Because time was the new space, we stopped doing the dishes.
Because pancakes were the new contraceptive, syrup became unerotic.
Because funeral homes were the new fluorescence, we lowered our eyes.
Because cancer was the new consumption, we took stock of it.
Because running away was the new video game, everyone was on pills.
Because cherry blossoms were the new infidelity, every tree was blushing.
Because bruises were the new law, we prodded them daily

AMERICA’S GOT CANCER

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