duplex as exercise in reciprocal determinism
this is what we would call a tragedy
a chalk line made towards inevitability
inevitability towards a chalk line made
in all caps my mother wrote a book
in all caps titled my mother as a book
i kept it on my nightstand like a bible
bible on my nightstand i kept looking
for something that wasn’t there
something that wasn’t there forget
about god my mother doesn’t pray anymore
god doesn’t want my mother to pray anymore
she fell over the tripwire and crashed into me
the tripwire crashed into me and i fell over
my mother says genetics can’t dictate behavior but
behavior can dictate genetics but my mother says
once you become something you stay that way
once you become something you stay away
from it we can call it innate or an inevitability
we can call it an inevitability innate from
the time my mother planted lavender bushes
my mother planted lavender bushes the time
i ran away the grubs underground followed
the grubs underground followed me running
away to my mother’s house in texas where she ran
away to her mother’s house in texas my mother ran
into the tripwire and bruised her knee telling me
into the tripwire with a bruised knee someone tells me
not everything is what we call a tragedy
but this might be.
Kaydance Rice won second place in the Charles Crupi Memorial Poetry Contest for Michigan High School students. For more information on the contest, please visit the Albion College English Department website.
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