I was born into a shopping cart, pushed through a parking lot
By a manic aunt. I was just a skeleton then, but already waving
Like a mayor, though only the secret trashcan women were out.
My aunt’s eyes were wild, she had insane wheat brewing
The field over, she’d spent all her money on overpriced
Notebooks, her torso was woozy with bad decision Tetris.
I cowered, my skeleton pelvis rattled against the metal cart.
Oddly, the trees weren’t changing much, no matter how far
We ran, they all sang the same nursery rhymes and patted
Me down with their big hands. I had my first rash of beauty
When the night began slow dancing with a whistle from
Earlier in the evening, which remembered itself as we passed.
The whistle laughed in the night’s arms. With a pang I knew
This romance would end, whistle and night would become
Simple farmers, combing our foreheads over with rakes,
But the pang eased as I thought of human extinction and
The slow growth of species over the earth, its face restful
As a mother turning on the microwave. So gradually, over
The course of the shopping cart ride, I learned to speak
In a manner hospitable to plants, in a manner hospitable
To humans and the cows who raise them from the dead,
In a manner that wouldn’t embarrass my windmill and cause
Him to cover his eyes with his arms. The convenience store
Milk jugs were sweating, and the parking lot dog’s head
Was an angry basket of flowers, considering. I could feel
My aunt getting tired at last, we’d been running forever,
And by the time my childhood ended, my aunt, she was gone.
How the worms moaned and turned over in their living
Graves that night! I walked home in electronic rags,
As if Zeus had ripped up a lightning bolt to make me,
A loose collection. The flower-dog was now a toilet
Calm and white; then a refrigerator, murderous with
Weight, groaning with meaning; then a bunch of forks
Dumped into the sink at once. The vibe was decidedly
Domestic but I was still learning the ways of the world,
So I tied ribbons over my face, fell asleep in my own palm.
When I woke up, whatever is out there, always ranging,
Sniffed me over at great length, like I was an angel
Carved from soap, or a trash woman bearing secrets
From her nighttime vigil, and that feeling of being sniffed
Over, head to toe, that’s what I’ve been after ever since.