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Category: Jessica Johnson

Girl

I don’t know why I talk and talk and talk

Sometimes people mind but mostly not

 

I constellate my tiny horses to see how their bodies work

 

And when that’s done I gather all my shells

And think of when I broke my favorite crown

 

I lay my shells and rocks and money in the light

 

(The trees can suck you up into the blue)

(Behind it there’s a unicorn of stars)

 

The earth is busy making towns and towns and towns and

If the stars touch earth a fire starts

My throat is hot and I take off my dress

 

And when that’s done I touch my center one long time

 

This shell is made of dust, this one of bone

The arrow I am tangles with the sun

from Poetry Northwest 11.2 Winter & Spring 2017More by Jessica Johnson from the library

Copyright © Jessica Johnson
Used with the permission of the author
on behalf of Poetry Northwest.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.