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PLEASE HANDLE YOUR CHILDREN by Leigh Stein |
7/6/12 |
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When I see my one particular enemy I am filled with laughter
and the good times, as if I do not know he sees through me
as, how do you say, the fog? Do you know this reconciliation,
as moderated by the United Nations? I thought we could
send our representatives in the form of poets.
My poet would have this letter to say, All the leaves
have trees. His poet would have this letter to say,
My client no longer wishes to see your client except
as the fog. I am that child behind you on this airplane.
I am screaming to hear the sound of my voice.
Someone put me on regular sleep schedule please.
Someone else tell my enemy I know he sees me.
Then forget representatives. Let us send ghosts
to act out our, how do you say, erotic dance?
I know I am a child because I have been
to more bar mitzvahs than funerals.
I know I am a child because in the fields
of ocean out the airplane window, I see
fear. Do you want to be knowing
if this is based on true story?
When I see my one particular enemy
I want to lie down and, how do you say,
give it up. I am his enemy but he is not
mine. I am a child. Please to handle me.
--
Leigh Stein is the author of the novel The Fallback Plan, which New York Magazine called "a masterwork of the post-collegiate babysitting genre." Her first full-length poetry collection, Dispatch from the Future, will be available from Melville House in July 2012.
Art: Orange String in and out of Space (2004) by Greg Allen-Müller.
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