3 Poems

by Teresa McMahon on March 19, 2016

Untitled 1

Chicago is weird
outside the library
a man offers me
coffee nuts
I am polite
so I say no

tonight
went on a date
with a guy who
looks like James Franco
we bring up the B word
binge
let’s go

a different
date tells me
he found the
slasher films
I was in in college
I panic
he smiles

here, a story:
a little girl’s arm
bruised fingerprints
from the principal
in a closet
I am alone
it is cold

it is cold
in Chicago
but Boston has more
snow
my older sister sends me
pictures of our home
she says it is an
igloo
I want to be in an igloo
for my future honeymoon

this summer I want to kayak
grew up with a canoe
in my backyard
only ever canoed New Hampshire
when visiting
Uncle Eddie
who wasn’t an uncle
just
my dad’s friend

snow turns me into a child
on Michigan Avenue I am
crying

I am so happy
you are having
a good week
now tell me what you ate
list it so I know

Untitled 2

LOOK! LITTLE DIPPER! THE SKY IS LADLE AND WE CAN SIP IT. THERE, BIG DIPPER AND NOW WE’RE SPOILED! THERE, FIREFLIES. IT IS THE THIRD OF JULY BONFIRES LINE THE BEACH PEOPLE HAVE SAVED WOOD ALL YEAR TO MAKE BONFIRES TALL LOOK, A CHAIR, A TABLE
BURNING!

Untitled 3

wade
slip
the river
mostly long
summer clouds
crawled
we caught crabs
in buckets
the color red
full
under rocks
go
the bridge
the ocean
little river
swim back
little bodies
up
down
limp
see our arms flop
no bones
built like

see the large rock
hide in high
tide
the marsh
grows
green
the river
has
hair

look!
the sky
is there

and now
there