Note to the Reader

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      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.

       No water, no life. No blue, no green.

      oceanographer Sylvia Earle

      Contents

        Title Page

        Note to the Reader

      1  Self-Portrait as Scallop

      2  When I Am Six

      3  On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance

      4  The Origin of Feathers on My Windshield

      5  Sea Church

      6  Mr. Cass and the Crustaceans

      7  Penguin Valentine

      8  from The Rambutan Notebooks

      9  Two Moths

      10  In Praise of My Manicure

      11  End-of-Summer Haibun

      12  When Lucille Bogan Sings “Shave ’Em Dry”

      13  The Two Times I Loved You the Most on a Farm

      14  Aubade with Cutlery and Crickets

      15  When You Select the Daughter Card

      16  At the Pumpkin Festival My Lips Burn Bright

      17  Self-Portrait as Niagara Falls in Winter

      18  Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Second before Waking Up

      19  The Falling: Four Who Have Intentionally Plunged Over Niagara Falls with the Hope of Surviving

      20  Forsythe Avenue Haibun

      21  Meals of Grief & Happiness

      22  Invitation

      23  Inside the Cloud Forest Dome

      24  I Could Be a Whale Shark

      25  Love in the Time of Swine Flu

      26  Self-Portrait as C-Section Scar

      27  The Cockroach Responds

      28  Andromache Begs Hector to Reconsider

      29  When I’m Away from You, I Feel like the Second-Place Winner in a Bee-Wearing Contest

      30  In the Museum of Glass Flowers

      31  Dangerous

      32  Travel Mommy Ghazal

      33  Flowers at the Taj Mahal

      34  While Riding an Elephant, I Think of Unicorns

      35  Self-Portrait as an Egg-Tempera Illuminated Manuscript from 1352

      36  Letter to the Northern Lights

      37  Perch Bones and Apple Aubade

      38  This Sugar

      39  Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth

      40  Psyche & Cupid: A Reimagining

      41  Venus Instructing Cupid to Torment Psyche

      42  Psyche Considers Her Last Letter from Cupid

      43