Note to the Reader

      Copper Canyon Press encourages you to calibrate your settings by using the line of characters below, which optimizes the line length and character size:

      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque

      Please take the time to adjust the size of the text on your viewer so that the line of characters above appears on one line, if possible.

      When this text appears on one line on your device, the resulting settings will most accurately reproduce the layout of the text on the page and the line length intended by the author. Viewing the title at a higher than optimal text size or on a device too small to accommodate the lines in the text will cause the reading experience to be altered considerably; single lines of some poems will be displayed as multiple lines of text. If this occurs, the turn of the line will be marked with a shallow indent.

      Thank you. We hope you enjoy these poems.

       This e-book edition was created through a special grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Copper Canyon Press would like to thank Constellation Digital Services for their partnership in making this e-book possible.

      How many people will be sleeping in the old houses

      the night when my hair lets out tongues of its fire

      and burns everything to the ground?

      —Diane Wakoski

      Contents

        Title Page

        Note to Reader

       I

      1  the first time

      2  a brief biography of the poet’s mother

      3  maybe this will explain my taste in men

      4  poem written with sawed-off typewriter

      5  three strikes

      6  the sandbox

      7  leverage

      8  letter from my heart to my brain

      9  letter from my brain to my heart

      10  ghost town

       II

      1  drought (California)

      2  heretic

      3  Dawson, N.M. 1905

      4  outhouse

      5  the second time

      6  the ghost’s daughter speaks: white elephant

      7  weight

      8  word problem

      9  kin

      10  oath (blud litany)

      11  * * *

       III

      1  one more time, with feeling

      2  deeper than dirt

      3  singe

      4  sermon

      5  una oración (bruja’s solioquy)

      6  swell

      7  fairy-tale pantoum for my seven-year-old self

      8  salvage

      9  for Carol, who is no one

      10  glutton

       IV

      1  my eyes in the time of apparition

      2  dead radio apostle

      3  the last time

      4  the other children have to forfeit their inheritence

        About the Author

        Also by Rachel McKibbens

        Acknowledgments

        Notes

        Copyright