these people or their children.
They moved to the coast. They wear plastic shoes.
They help their daughters shave their heads.
They fill up their rooms with mylar balloons.
If I had a totem, it would be the bear
barred in a cave and the child
shrinking back in fear. I would add
the blue heron, refugee,
the oyster gasping for air,
the gnat and the fly, the earthworm and
the maggot on the hint of lost bones.
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