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Mara Jebsen: Manhatta Menagerie

October 25, 2012 by PBQ

(Manahatta, I’ve heard, was once the word
for “hilly island in wolf country”)

each was crouched in the bare-bone black-
knuckle misery of his private
winter. then come the intoxicant
of air. now, unfurling from our spines: small
creatures— a dragon, wolf, tender-necked
giraffe; the tawny, sweet-blooded
african lion; a witch stick-puppet
from our childhoods who flaps
her beckoning black
wing; our fathers, mothers,
young, are waltzing in harlequin-
disguise. __all these wild things
locusting like ghosts
through the crooks
of our cracked manahatta.

. . .while in pastoral quarters, bucks
______________________bang horns in the scotch-colored dusk.

Filed Under: Contributors 85, Issue 85, Poetry, Poetry 85 Tagged With: Contributors 85, Mara Jebsen, Poetry, Poetry 85

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