Cousin Poems

My Cousin

My cousin is a worm
my cousin is an earth worm
I find my cousin in the dirt
clear the dirt with a hose so my cousin is clean
my cousin wiggles from my hand & escapes back to the ground
my cousin wants to be warm again
I pick my cousin back up
because my cousin doesn’t know it
but my cousin misses me & will always want to play
I play with my cousin until it is dinner
I put my cousin through a hook & trade how my cousin was alive
for whichever fish swims fastest to my cousin

We Cousins

We make our mouths close enough they’re almost touching to the opposite cousin’s closest arm.
We feel our breath on each other & blink to tell the other we feel it, that there is proof of life.
We blink until our breath calms & cools on our cousinskin & there’s no blinks left until sleep.
We dream from what our breath might say if we were awake & wanted to give the right rest.
We wake as long as the other does & our blinks are the same way as last night, but the other way.
We wipe drool from the other mouth & wipe it off on our knees, feel the heat & cold absorb.
We let the carpet clean the saliva, whatever it is it’s made of, that goes away the better we pray.
We wait all week to see if our parents notice the darker knees our pajamas have when unclean.
We are cold in the basement when we undress, unfold beach chairs to watch the washer/dryer.
We trade PJ’s so in case we are taken away, we will sleep the same sleep as our cousin.

——
Niles Baldwin lives in Kittery, Maine. His works are found in Sleepingfish XX, High Horse Magazine, Heavy Feather Review, and elsewhere.