42opus
is an online magazine of the literary arts.
19 March 2007 | Vol. 7, No. 1
Postscript
Our house steams switched-on like rain.
Neighbors place umbrellas over children,
send them into the street to watch god clean
what fire trucks and strained hoses can't.
Barefoot under a borrowed poncho, we touch
(misused synapse to misused synapse)
but wonder where are the fucking marshmallows?
Smoke like kindergarten chalkboards
hung between these children's faces,
It's true: walk or kneel was not the right question.
Standing after before the mirror
(feeling domiciled separate from thought):
tongue against teeth, afterthought against apology:
I am / am not my gender, I will / will not react.
About the author:
Jennifer Merrifield's poetry appears in recent or future issues of journals such as Natural Bridge, LIT, and Fourteen Hills, and is anthologized in White Ink and Wild Sweet Notes II: More West Virginia Poetry. An MFA candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University, she is the recipient of the 2006 Columbia Poetry Prize.
Source:
http://42opus.com/v7n1/postscript
