Nicole Mauro

Letter S

1. Suppose. What if I told you a morally
2. allegorical
3. nursery rhyme
4. about adults
5. and the things that can fly out of
6. pie-holes? Exactly. The things that
7. fly out the pie-holes
8. we’ve baked.
9. *
10. Now suppose that I didn’t, that
11. now I have
12. to explain
13. “want
14. is a kernel,” and a morally
15. allegorical nursery rhyme
16. about black-
17. birds
18. in the wind-blowing
19. canebrake. Not to tell, but to whom. How
20. often have I
21. heard them
22. muttering
23. over the shell covering
24. a turtle
25. before flying
26. it up to the telephone pole
27. what seemed to me
28. words. “Four and twenty”
29. —is that a lot or soon? That was a fucked-
30. up
31. thing to say. Still, could be
32. worse—could be winch and the
33. egg.