Inseminating the Elephant by Lucia Perillo

Author:Lucia Perillo
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Published: 2012-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Snowstorm with Inmates and Dogs

The prison kennel’s tin roof howls

while the dogs romp outside through the flakes.

The inmates trained a dog to lift my legs—

for months they rolled the concrete floor

in wheelchairs, simulating.

Through a window I watch them cartwheel now,

gray sweatpants rising against the whitened hill

traversed by wire asterisks and coils.

At first I feared they pitied me,

the way I flinched at the building’s smell.

Now the tin roof howls, the lights go off

to the sound of locking doors. Go on, breathe—

no way the machinery of my lungs

is going to plow the county road.

Didn’t I try to run over a guy,

spurned love being the kindling stick that rubbed

against his IOUs? Easy to land here,

anyone could — though I think laughter

would elude me, no matter what the weather.

Compared to calculating how far to the road.

Signs there say: CORRECTIONS CENTER DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS.

My instructions were: Accept no notes or photographs,

and restrict the conversation to such topics as

how to teach the dog to nudge

the light switch with his nose.

Now the women let their snowballs fly — as if

the past were a simple matter that could splat and melt.

Only my red dog turns his head

toward the pines beyond the final fence

before the generator chugs to life.

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