show me how to make fun things
or joyful accidents How to open up sis
‘s dolls, see how she blinks without a life
line. If I’m little, show me how to win
games and become a burned boy
who’s present enough to keep standing
in doorways without shoving show me
my name and its prototype. Let me craft elastic; let me
be better even with the fear
of water even when
I’m sent into planets to build bombs to keep bombs from obliterating
these burdens
show me how to shoot these niggas faster, fill up
tubs, carry space
packs, become fire
that holds silly knuckles
Show me the crack at my head recede from the filthy state
waters of fifty humid states. Wave. Wave.
Make me
artless Make me
barren
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From The Collection Plate by Kendra Allen. Copyright 2021 by Kendra Allen. Excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.
