← v9n2, Fall 2010
Poetry · Volume 9, Number 2

Ochre xii

Endless days of nannies with security clearance:

Marta with her face mole, a trio of long white hairs

Feathering from its center. She hums to Glenn Miller.

She does not slap him as Carmela did.

English

Is not her strong suit. Endless days he watches

The clock edge to 3 above the woodstove,

Chalk dust shimmering the air. Cursive, cursive

Cursive. Uppercase & lower.

One-room schoolhouse

& outside Keeps grind gears in quagmire streets.

Trucks lug heavy water to the detonation site.

My nameis Peter Thetownwhere I live does not exist.

MY NAME IS PETER MY TOWN DOES NOT EXIST.

Some nights I wake to father hoem he’s a book a drink

A radioh

This is me and his pipe It tastes jst like a cough