[un.der.sto.ry] / Karen Dietrich

 

dancing girl press, 2013 $7.00

 Karen Dietrich’s poetry chapbook, Anchor Glass, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Bellingham Review, PANK, Main Street Rag, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. She teaches part-time at a community college and lives near Pittsburgh, PA. Her memoir, The Girl Factory, is due out in October. Website: karendietrich.net





THIS WORLD CAN ONLY TOLERATE SO MUCH SWEETNESS AND LIGHT


Stop walking around like all the days were made for you
I will tell you a secret – they were not

Think of the starving poster children tacked above
garbage cans in some elementary school cafeteria

You scraped chicken pinwheel and whipped potatoes
into the trash with the side of your fork

You used to dream about Africa,
children eating rice with their hands

Once, a girl offered you a taste, her fingers long and dark
the sun denting the tops of your heads

You woke up in a canopy bed
dust ruffle, pillow shams, all of it pink

There was a bird outside your window
she chirped desperately to warn the others