like a snail with a shell of sticks
— she loads them on her back —
Like a camel with a hump of sticks
— on her back, on her back —
Like a horse with a knight of sticks and a stick for a sword
Where is she taking this load of sticks?
— on her hump, on her hump —
She has no house, where is she taking the house she doesn’t have?
— in the fire she is taking it in the fire —
In the fire she is making a poem entirely out of sticks on fire and it goes like this
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Copyright © 2024 by Valzhyna Mort. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 25, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.