Mary Harpin

Animals Invited to the Jubilation

For DK

The lion, the shark and the wooly mammoth

have arrived. I am in charge

of boiling the water. My daughter is in charge

of the guests. Bring the peppermint tea, she says,

candied pineapple. Bring the muffins,

bring fruit. Napkins. Bring blankets.

Because if they need sleep, we’ll

cover them up. The Aurora shooter grows

a beard in jail three miles away. A sodden

teddy bear floats from the memorial toward a

storm drain. A flash flood, the mask

of a super hero. She wraps the lion

in a dish towel. Lays him down

in front of the fireplace. She spreads newspaper

instead of a table cloth. Her teacup spills over

Car Bomb Shatters Truce. She scoops

sunflower seeds on each plate.

One meringue cookie. Parts of

Jessica lie alone in a crawl space waiting

for a boy’s confession. Where, she asks, are

their mamas? I ask my mother

what possibly is expected of us.

We put down our cups. Slice open

a letter from Auntie in Abu Dhabi. The bells

for prayer, she writes, ring two beats later

at one church across from another. Sometimes

it sounds like a hymn planned by angels. Other times

like a hundred cars crashing. 

Mary Harpin is a digital Storyteller, part time at a creative agency and part time through her consulting business, CAVU Creative. She holds an MFA in poetry from Hamline University (St. Paul, Minn) and has received a What Light poetry award and a Prairie Poetry prize. Her work has appeared in Dos Passos Review, Gertrude, Artichoke Haircut, Conclave and elsewhere. Mary lives in Denver with her husband and daughters.