Teresa K. Miller

 

 

From Forever No Lo

 

You have the ugliest president in the world// What if I told you you could hold now/ that I hope you'll have waited// My finger to the television screen in a quiet corner of my brain// And you know what are the worst, funeral home services/ they feel so—empty// o monumento para os pescadores perdidos// I needed to get that money I inherited but she wouldn’t take care of it/ It's like, that has nothing to do with your dead mom, it's just getting your shit done// We peer in the window just as a live lobster flops to the floor and writhes on the tile//

 

 

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So that no one would go in search of the cars filled with bodies/ no one would question the story// That is a good Catholic name/ You are so beautiful/ God must smile on me today// Here is a story I remember:  Girl 1 says, Do you have a cat?/ Girl 2 says, No/ Girl 1 says, Do you have a dog?/ Girl 2 says, No/ Girl 1 says, Do you have a—/ Girl 3 says, You know she can’t have pets in the shelter// Na estufa the doves are alone, one to a caged grotto// Sim, a embaixada, perdão//

 

 

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My mother could just barely do a French braid/ sent me to school puffy headed to play with the little girls in tight plaits/ Mothers quilting/ No relatives fresh from prison// I dreamt your beer gut was a smooth concave stomach, ran my fingers along your waistband/ You said almost/ What if I have crossed myself into uma mulher perdida// I would have invited you to my birthday, but my mom says you live too far away// a criança perdida// They sing and stomp the ground and defend their neighbors and accuse them//

 

 

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On the train to Faro we sit with an English horticulturalist who keeps saying cheers and brilliant/ seems vaguely uncomfortable with my eating bread and cheese in my seat// And what if a man who was like your brother but was not did become the Zahir/ What if we both saw it// S'il ne marche pas, je peux revenir, et vous pouvez m'assister, n'est-ce pas?//  Once you start talking, you can’t stop the tape until it's finished// She touched his skin and said Lordy!// Along the waistband, convex or concave//