A Child’s Encyclopedia: St. John’s Wort, Marmot Monax
by Catherine Kasper
i.
A child’s encyclopedia:
St. John’s wort, marmot monax
a bellow, name your poison:
clemmys insculpta, old red legs
lymph nodes
they play on concrete
then summer clover, rotted softball
sing songs to themselves
until naptime
quilt drenched in dream urine
cross-stitched
out the window, creeping Jenny
windborne henbit
ii.
Choose a safety deposit box
halos or pressed bloodroot
clap, keep clapping
dutchman’s breeches for
mosquito-sized fairies
spring beauties intoxicate
pink tickseed, rose coreopsis
speak when you’re spoken to
goldenrod tricks the nose
pronounced swallowing, phlegm
storybook incarnate
Bishop’s cap
define: pretend
iii.
Jump rope, practice line dances
I believe in Mary Worth
tell me what it means:
dolls’ eyes stare from the soil
wake-robin, stinking Benjamin
dog’s tooth violet
scratch behind its ear, avoid
unfamiliar names:
erythronium dens-canis
translate: dog barking
iv.
Question how, not why
in micro-surgery
miniature invertebrate
cut-open candy-heart
stuffing
factor out rational
I weep for you.
lock in a closet; suffocate in bed
ghost story
before which we kneel, bless
know that we have at least
escaped this
minute achievement
princess, pollywog
book with broken spine
diamond bloom across a mirror
white baneberry
v.
Under a post-mortem
portico, sort, delete
alphabetize, file under
necessary
small wonder
once gave wings
to surpass unreal cities
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