At The Nature Center
Jenn Blair
I watch the ink-y letters of
the Corn Snake’s newspaper
nest brush up against his
milk grey belly: Be a Hero!
Mentor a Child in Need,
Tanner Jones for District
Commissioner, local born, five
generations no new taxes,
DUI classes, futons, fair prices…
Finely handcrafted Adirondack
furniture sets and end tables,
—unable to refuse any
word in any form I’ve
almost ingested the whole
helpless mouse of the alphabet
when the Corn Snake’s tail
suddenly curls into the second
stanza of a wretched, endless
poem for Cody, beloved baby
boy, boy in the cowboy hat
haloed by a thick, squiggly
lasso frame, dadda’s partner,
momma’s pride, angel’s best
helper—safe now from the
world’s great cares, mama!
let’s go to the salamanders!
Shhhhh. I slap my own flesh
away and lean in once more,
begging the tail to scatter
again so my eye might better
gobble down the nose and other
cheek and perfect God will
never make it again mouth.
Jenn Blair‘s work has appeared in the Berkley Poetry Review, South Carolina Review, Pembroke Magazine, Cold Mountain Review, Copper Nickel, Rattle, Superstition Review, and New South among others. Her chapbook ‘The Sheep Stealer’ is out from Hyacinth Girl Press.
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