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& then she wailed & screamed & coughed on her own drool  ​
by Emily Mohn-Slate

her face blotching red
so I tried the elephant  the giraffe
the caterpillar  her finger  my finger
                 I opened the car window
                 & gripped her sweaty hand
                 & after the seventh song I tried
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
Now I know my ABCS Next time won’t you sing with me?
she stopped crying & stared at me & stayed that way
so I kept singing for 40 minutes
                 I was afraid to stop
                 her eyes on my eyes       singing & looking
                 rocks grinding my throat              jaw coming loose
                 ​I sang & sang & sang                  until
                               her eyes shut          her hand loosened
                                            as if she was falling
                                                  into the arms of a kind water
                                                            where I couldn’t find her   
                                                      but she would be safe
                                                                       & the red left her
 

how was your day? someone asked  
 
​
& last night I bounced on the edge of a hotel bed
holding her in my arm’s crook
& under my breath I whispered
           What the fuck What the fuck
            please sleep please sleep please sleep
            why why why why why why why
 
& my friend was pouring a bourbon for herself in her kitchen
& the face in the window across the street turned off the light
& the child in the boat cried for its mother
& a man came and took my child and said he would bounce her for me
& I said yes please help my child go to sleep
& my eyes burned
& I couldn’t find her
& I slept

Emily Mohn-Slate's recent poems are forthcoming or have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Indiana Review, Cimarron Review, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. Her manuscript, The Falls, was a finalist for the 2016 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize offered by University of Pittsburgh Press. She teaches creative writing at Chatham University and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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June 2017
ISSN 2157-8079
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