Dead Baby Joke by Rhiannon Thorne
What is red and pruned and bloody
all over? Limp as a burlap sack and softer
than Egyptian cotton, slicker than silk? A hint:
it is redder than a crusade with its dried crud, dried blood,
dried death up past the knee. Here's another: they were
buried out back of the farm, in the good old days, by women
who'd click their tongues, shack back up in the hay. Just
a little bit of pine, not a big worry. Expected, unexpected,
vicious as a hurricane, wet and lungs unable to breathe. Or Jane,
who jumped off the bridge and hit down on Payson Street.
Let's call him: Jack, who came tumbling after, and you
are the Piper who pumped too hard.
Knock, knock.
Who's there? Your package,
too early.
Rhiannon Thorne's work has appeared/is forthcoming most recently in Foundling Review, Midwest Quarterly, Words Dance, and The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review. She edits the online publication cahoodaloodaling and may be reached at rhiannonthorne.com.
What is red and pruned and bloody
all over? Limp as a burlap sack and softer
than Egyptian cotton, slicker than silk? A hint:
it is redder than a crusade with its dried crud, dried blood,
dried death up past the knee. Here's another: they were
buried out back of the farm, in the good old days, by women
who'd click their tongues, shack back up in the hay. Just
a little bit of pine, not a big worry. Expected, unexpected,
vicious as a hurricane, wet and lungs unable to breathe. Or Jane,
who jumped off the bridge and hit down on Payson Street.
Let's call him: Jack, who came tumbling after, and you
are the Piper who pumped too hard.
Knock, knock.
Who's there? Your package,
too early.
Rhiannon Thorne's work has appeared/is forthcoming most recently in Foundling Review, Midwest Quarterly, Words Dance, and The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review. She edits the online publication cahoodaloodaling and may be reached at rhiannonthorne.com.
