by Carolyn Adams
She semaphores into traffic
in a circus dress,
with a plastic sign for a mouth:
Furniture.
Her other signs:
Lamps and Insurance.
She jumps on the curb,
a human directional,
a flailing spider
on the hot pavement.
Fast food joints prep for lunch.
Shoppers enter the mall.
They walk channels
up to the great structure
with its red and blue
and orange flags.
She sees this in a blur
as birds fly helplessly
from her throat
to flap in the faces of strangers.
Freak.
What.
Stop.
They ricochet in her head
and bounce off her tongue
so fast she doesn’t even
feel them speed through anymore.
She just twirls the sign,
points at the store,
and watches that beautiful boy
in the leather boutique.
Carolyn Adams regularly tests her vocab and helps provide a meal through the UN World Food Program at Free Rice.
She semaphores into traffic
in a circus dress,
with a plastic sign for a mouth:
Furniture.
Her other signs:
Lamps and Insurance.
She jumps on the curb,
a human directional,
a flailing spider
on the hot pavement.
Fast food joints prep for lunch.
Shoppers enter the mall.
They walk channels
up to the great structure
with its red and blue
and orange flags.
She sees this in a blur
as birds fly helplessly
from her throat
to flap in the faces of strangers.
Freak.
What.
Stop.
They ricochet in her head
and bounce off her tongue
so fast she doesn’t even
feel them speed through anymore.
She just twirls the sign,
points at the store,
and watches that beautiful boy
in the leather boutique.
Carolyn Adams regularly tests her vocab and helps provide a meal through the UN World Food Program at Free Rice.
