Maria Giesbrecht

LEAVING MEXICO

after Ocean Vuong’s “Essay on Craft”

Because the microwave

    lighting the evening

crept into my metaphor

                          without asking me

if I wanted to see. Because

after dinner we laid in Dad’s

pick-up like tranquilized cattle

          and no one came

to turn on the stars. Because I ran

            out of alliteration

after fleeing and freeing

          tied my tongue.

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