From The quadrupeds of North America, 1851-1854
Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library

[She’s been out there for a while.]
   Because of the aggression found
     in male laboratory mice,
 female mice are preferred as test subjects.
   I guess we have mustard.
In boxing, “a mouse” describes swelling
    that nests under the eye. Like the flagrant
       orange of a parking ticket. “Muscle,”
   from the Latin mus: as if
      mice run under our skin. [She was
hyperventilating before she went.]
   Like smoke gliding
    from a silver vent. I did forty-four.
Living alone exacerbates
   aggression in most strains.
The wet shadow
where the sprinkler fell, will fall
tomorrow.  [I just remember feeling
what she/is feeling before and
it is the/worst world.]

 

Abbigail Baldys


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