LAUREN HENLEY
How to deal with your first death Find the only climbable tree on your property Recall the book of the greedy boy who took from the tree until she was naked alive without a head Decide to undue
stumped
the narrative gift by gift Someone has told you that anything which gives is female Anything pillaged too That gutted cabin had at least a stove its mouth slack tongue raisined with rat turds a wooden-handled pot on the back burner That was just yesterday and tomorrow a slab From the tallest branch you can see your one neighbor raking pig shit from the wire pen his splitting maul half buried in dirt Wonder how many times any of us will walk the rutted road Now focus See these holes? The sapsucker is spreading his skull-rattling news a thousand strikes per word Hang crushed beer cans in her branches 108 | PHOEBE 48.1