tanka for the popcorn setting
sibling
digging mud
hits
pay dirt, unearths paintball
an
intact egg-sack
of
plump blue dust cradled, thought,
"cook
it?" woke me to discuss
tanka for spending time
spying
a twenty
sibling
snaked the catch basin
with
a dried palm frond
and
a wad of chewing gum
fished
money from the ocean
tanka for prospectors
two-sibling
troop grooms
strip
mining for silver strings
over-salted
curls
diligently
uprooting
our
growing inheritance
tanka for lost lookalikes
presence
of birthmark
darkening
from ribs to hip
tell
neighborhood kids
"that's
where they removed a twin"
wide-eyed,
they believe the myth
tanka for breakneck speeds
sibling
chase sequence
the
youngest winning for once
connected
face first
unexpected
surface, split
stitched
under anesthetic
Zoe Grace Marquedant is a queer writer. She earned her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her work has been featured in the Cool Rock Repository, Coffin Bell, Olney Magazine, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, as well as in other publications. She is a columnist and contributor for Talk Vomit.