Moonstones, friendship bracelets,
& bloodied Band-Aids
Sometimes letters addressed
to the dead, the names mined
while lunching in churchyards
turkey on rye atop the plot
for Mary Jean, beloved sister,
your wings were ready
but our hearts were not
What girls stow under their pillows
are locks of traded hair black for Becky
chestnut for Cassandra
When the pond freezes over
the last to arrive
is ordered to strike
its surface with her fist
because what girls stow
under the ice become
the words they hoard
from the one charged
with pummeling the pond ice cringing
to a mouth wide enough
for the girls to fit
& afterward the girls licking
the chosen one’s knuckles the victim’s
fingertips her lips
blue as her knee-highs
required by the diocese the girls
at the dinner table
dropping their spoons
because under their pillows
they have stowed evidence forget baby
teeth & fairies
Bind a girl by
the ankles & wrists dump her
into the pond
& she’ll sink
to the bottom
because you know
what happens to girls
