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Meg Pokrass
Fall 2008
Firefly
My boyfriend is acting
like those poor fireflies
I caught and jarred as a child,
though he hasn't lost
his flashing green eyes.
Sometimes he seems
almost happy to be with me -
lying on the floor mat stretching,
lifting a long leg
up and down slowly,
as though
he's been to a spa,
polished and enlightened.
I wonder who he's
been with this time. The smell
of cinnamon tells me nothing,
only that he's wise
like wood smoke
winding around many fires.
My hair is falling out.
You can see it in the sink
darkening the drain.
He says it's a bad sign,
tells me it's "poor diet."
Switching bathrooms,
he steals
the softest towel.
I reinvent us often:
Lavender message lotion,
wheat grass kits.
New ways of bribing him back
to his cold pillow
in the humid hours
before dawn.
Here On Earth
There is no sign of alien life:
Just two itchy dogs
in the backyard.
One dog carries a blanket,
lies down on it. Mother's
sure she saw a space ship
touch down
in the untended orchard
after martinis last night.
I'm on safety patrol.
My branch of the oak will be
comfortable for sitting with
a pomegranate and an orange.
Carrying them in my pockets,
trying not to crush them,
I sneak up to the lookout,
scouting for signs of disaster
in the low leaves.
Soon we will move
to another house, as we do
every time the rent goes up:
Sour wood sorrel
invades the ice plant,
fleas terrorize the dogs,
this entire world
gets taken away by aliens.
I imagine this house
belonging to creatures
who know what to do
about all the strange things
here on earth.
Meg Pokrass lives in San Francisco. Her stories and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming here: Pindeldyboz, Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Elimae, FRiGG, Word Riot, DOGZPLOT, 971 Menu, The Rose and Thorn, Thieves Jargon, Eclectica, Insolent Rudder, Chanterelle's Notebook, Toasted Cheese, 34th Parallel, Bent Pin Quarterly, The Orange Room, among others. Meg is a new staff editor for SmokeLong Quarterly, a flash fiction e-zine. Check out www.megpokrass.com for links to her stories and poems.
Pauline Lim Great Unconformity
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