Maureen Thorson

Shinigami

I suffer adorable terror.

Pinkybone rattling in a plastic cup,
pink with extruded flowers.
May your enterprises be profitable.

Rappers launching doves from their tracksuit sleeves
know the bravado of the body, its fragility.
Sudden blossom; sudden rendering.

Let me speak to you in my small voice.
The one with the pleated skirt.
I am an affront.

When the whirlwind comes,
you’ll feel it in the little home
of your body. Something to reap,

something to lift you up.
Nothing up my sleeves but my arms,
dove-like, insensible:

This armature of breakable bones.

Maureen Thorson lives in Washington, DC, where she co-curates the In Your Ear reading series at the DC Arts Center. Her first book, Applies to Oranges, is available from Ugly Duckling Presse.