Five Poems

Clementine

Blowing bubbles soft and fine
seashell pink, shaped like a bean
Now comes the time to pick you up
then time again to put you down
We spend hours watching butterflies
rise and fall on your dreaming chest
I’d let you bite my arm off with your little tooth



Beans

Once upon a time
you ate your aunt’s baked beans with the ham in them
her husband made you sit on his lap
when you were too old
but it made you feel lowkey pretty
Now I’m always looking in a mirror
you were wearing a baby sized tracksuit
when I dropped my phone on your head
I had never noticed children before
I love your snot and cradle cap
your eyes puffy from crying
the way you smell like cheese
and when I scare you with my sneeze
I can’t stop laughing and saying
I’m sorry
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎‎I’m sorry
I’m sorry



Lana del Mar

Sad outside the brain
despite what the internet says
fine China
French linens
my darling Clementine
with her drool acne
taking root beneath the weed cover
Suffocating the dandelion
that won’t cure the unvaxed child
Fertilization is another word for having to wait
for God’s will to unfold
Take the coneflowers and keep them
your assessment changes nothing
it was made to look ugly
it was made to look Shakespearean



Marriage of Competition and Complacency

I am being attacked from all sides
and now I must defend myself from your poetry
on top of dark psychic forces
there’s something rotten in my soul
that makes me watch house flipping shows
all day long while the baby cries
I like real wood
Dislike laminated vinyl flooring
pretend to be happy for others
we could take out that wall
we could put in a jacuzzi



Lobotomy

Jesus,
give me a lobotomy
weave what’s left into lace
with your strong hands
make me less shy
pluck the insect from my eye
then give me a boot to the face,
making it stick in a smile
baptize me in municipal waters
and tuck me wet into your basket
turn me into nitrogen
then make me a ray of sunlight
reflect me back into the sun
until I explode in loving shade

____
Rebecca Warlick lives in New York.