"China Child": graphic by Ernest Williamson III

Shake Kelley White the daughters of silence went home in the morning the automobile left a mark on the street the dogs fell to barking just before sunrise the tails have been bobbed, the ears have been clipped babygirl’s backpack got left on the sidewalk sister’s allowance must have been spent one cat climbs a lamp post, one cat bends a tree limb the birds have forgotten to nest on the ledge under the porch lives a broken-winged swallow under the stoop hides a hungry old snake back of the house sits a worried old lady behind the house waits a man with nothing to eat she wears her hair long, it is tangled with feathers he cut off his beard and rubbed salt on his face the children have painted their eyebrows and lashes the old ones wear scarves that leave questions erased three goats and a rooster were spotted at sunset a grasshopper woke in the middle of March a frog with six legs and a tail like a tadpole a tree with trunk twisted and spelling out braille you left out the bicycle, let it get rusty forgot the key that was hidden beneath he threw out the painting she made of his children they lost all the buttons, their shoes were unlaced the blankets were folded and left on the back fence the flowers were snapped off and left by the door someone wrote a poem with soot and a finger an arrow was chalked on the street toward the school they found grasses braided with knots on each corner nothing was left but the soles of her feet they carried ice tongs and cold tongues of angels they looked for a sign, they found nothing but teeth (note: this poem is designed to have interchangeable lines— the lines can be cut into strips, put in a hat and shaken, then pulled out of the hat and read in whatever order appears)

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