My Sick Girl
Clare A. Sammells
So much depends
upon
whether you can keep this down
You purge
while I hold your hair
rub your back
murmur
The toilet accepts your offerings
school anxieties
dance lessons
your feline alter-ego
myths of the toy chipmunk
demands for My Little Pony
and ice cream
and books
Until nothing is left
but your elemental self
A child
lying on her mother’s stomach
breathing
sleeping
dreaming
waiting
to be midwifed
by a single
saltine
cracker
With apologies to William Carlos Williams.
Anthropological Allsorts 