With the right combination
of numbers, a phone discharges
.22 caliber rounds, and that’s enough
to silence the witnesses.
Bedposts fall under
“less spy, more convenient”
and can be wiped clean.
All the women line their eyes
with kohl, let the points extend,
and this is only dangerous in cases
of mistaken identity, doppelgangers.
If you meet yours, kill yours,
even if your fingers resist,
refuse to break the windpipe
of yourself, but it’s not yourself,
only a mirror-image
with a better job, boyfriend,
Labrador Retriever to your mutt.
We hunt a wild boar with spears
made from brooms and cut mason jars.
If the beast spoke, he would tell the story
of three little girls who used their pinafores
as leashes and nooses.
Marigold left school one afternoon
and came back a suitcase,
complete with destination stickers
for Barcelona, New Guinea,
and the Arctic Circle.
It’s hard to gauge the recoil
without television shows
that compare Apaches
to Maori Warriors
as if this weren’t as awful
as little moon-faced killers,
you and me if we could disappear
as easily as we mind the gap, afraid
to have our bodies severed
by oncoming trains.
