Marianne Boruch

all of us lose the gene could, trading it offfor can’t and sleep alone likethe pelican in the vast reserve lost his long-term mateto bored ducks in a bad moodmarauding in Pond Four. Their revenge forsomething, just to wear her out. Or it was time.Called Mildred, and too old. She got tired.

A detail about him though: one wing gone,after and also.

So he’s stuck there in paradise, minus...

My grandmother, her oddly accurate euphemism, turning up to the doctor. She meant caught in stirrups on the examining table, a doctor warming and wincing his speculum to eye the most interior goods.

It’s just that in lab, they’re tying open the legs now, the cadavers supine. They’re pulling them to the end of each table, knees roped sideways. I am so...