MaryAnn L. Miller, Fern Fish
Watching Planet Earth
Marina Ramil
I will always be eight years old
because eight is a good, round number
and eight is a good, round age to be.
So, let me stay this way. Please.
I pose on the couch with my tip-toes
touching the cold tile, catching my death.
On the TV, there’s a herd of elephants,
there’s a bird of paradise dancing,
there’re painted dogs on the prowl,
there’s a flock of ducks that are
the only ducks in the whole world
all together all at once all flocking.
In the other room, there is a woman
who is the age I am now (not eight,
I’m sorry, I lied about that part)
cutting coupons for lentil soup.
I would like to take the scissors
from her manicured hands and
cut all the hair from my head
so it slouches on the floor together
like darkest brown almost black
ribbons of night against those white
tiles. It’ll catch the death for me.
I keep my hair long instead and
keep watching my nature shows.
That way, in my house there will
always be the sound of animals.
I will always be one of them.
Marina Ramil
I will always be eight years old
because eight is a good, round number
and eight is a good, round age to be.
So, let me stay this way. Please.
I pose on the couch with my tip-toes
touching the cold tile, catching my death.
On the TV, there’s a herd of elephants,
there’s a bird of paradise dancing,
there’re painted dogs on the prowl,
there’s a flock of ducks that are
the only ducks in the whole world
all together all at once all flocking.
In the other room, there is a woman
who is the age I am now (not eight,
I’m sorry, I lied about that part)
cutting coupons for lentil soup.
I would like to take the scissors
from her manicured hands and
cut all the hair from my head
so it slouches on the floor together
like darkest brown almost black
ribbons of night against those white
tiles. It’ll catch the death for me.
I keep my hair long instead and
keep watching my nature shows.
That way, in my house there will
always be the sound of animals.
I will always be one of them.