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In an attempt to rationalize...

Marina Manoukian

    1. I noticed it in animals and humans when I was very young, but did not see it in myself till my twenties.
    2. We cannot tell if animals love or hate, but we can see when they fear. Squirrels become popsicles. Possums drop dead. Lightening sprints through hollow bones. Petrified like mammoths in Siberia.
    5. If no one believes, you do not exist.
    6. Muscles and skin droop from grandfathers playing backgammon. All of them wizards with no more tricks no more sleeves, toenails curled in moldy grey slippers no one bothers to wash.
    7. I remember crawling out of the ocean, away from sharpened flippers into sharpened claws, hoping mothers would be gentler, but the croquet mallet was swung just as hard.
    8. Children are a weight. No more eggs must be born or bred. Leave them out in the cold cleaved in twine. Bound in twine. Snow destroys all traces.
    11. Alice let her house fall when she no longer needed Wonderland. My feet refuse to step off the chessboard onto grass too sharp and air too dry. Where breath coughs up a nicotine fog. Ashtrays and beer bottles overflow with the vomit of the mind, purged out and relit every twenty-two minutes.
    17. Without stories, the room collapses like a telescope in infinite replay. Borders drew the eye into a well. Trembling in the bucket past treacle and claws to the oubliette. I’ve furnished mine. Not yet ready to put it on the market.
    19. No plant can take root in my backyard. The foundation reeks of mortar and blood, haunting the dreams of seedlings in cradles. A dragon breathing nicotine and smoke guards the lone pomegranate tree. It rarely blossoms these days. No sweetness in years.
    22. Without the rabbit hole pebbles are pebbles. I circle a mushroom till the world ends but each side looks the same. Create a house of cards and wait for it to topple. Otherwise you will never know where the foundation is cracked. Where to let the Oak take root.
    32. Once the edges are traced, I can create my own rules to the game, as long as I don’t repeatedly keep smashing against the borders. I’m tired of that.

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