SPROUT

                    by J.J. Starr 

Cannot believe it just got in, it the deep floral hair

Came mine as wild honey & couldn't show it off
Hooded woman, nature like tabernacle or harlot mare
What's it for, it's for breeding, the gemmy bead it is

Out howl the neighbor's dachshunds, I walk the backyard

Then cricket & dusk birds & a notebook, I liked it
I liked it all, the living & moving stuff, bright, catastrophic
It goes going & then sometime, it won't maybe & what then

It's not for me, only the lines & the sticker I pull off the cover

I like it good, touching fingers to it
The dogs go on & cleanly


                                                                            St. Charles, IL, 1998




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photo by Nathan McClain

J.J. Starr was born and raised all over the Chicagoland area. She received her MFA from New York University. Her work has appeared in Drunken Boat, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Into the Void, and Stirring, among others. She lives with her three dozen plants in Brooklyn.