fetal mandate
i eat dandelions on the nights the moon won’t come out
there’s a wind in me that needs to be quelled
and i am here counting cannibals
as they gnaw the heads off their lovers

            inside myself i’ve hung a photo of a photo of my birth mother
            hooked on the hallway of my lungs
            so it only hurts every time i breathe

god has a planner, a calendar
scheduling times to kill and times for mercy
the girl grows in a cabbage patch and asks when it’s her turn to flower

            holding vigils for my sisters
            who are not dead but seem to think that i am

            they start a vegetable garden and ask my mother,

no, their mother,

            why are some babies born invisible?
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