I. The Top

    In the year 2008, scientists say devastation is on the horizon.
    That there is no stopping it.
    That we’ve begun the downward slide.

II. Staring at the Sea

       And look, an elaborate castle made entirely of sand.

III. Boys Don’t Cry

     In the stories the storyteller tells,
                                                    loss
                                         after loss
            is wrapped in music
            and gold light.

IV. Japanese Whispers

      Her smile when she returns
                                    from her father’s house
                      is a Japanese screen–
                                      its elegant asymmetry carefully designed
                                                               to distract the viewer
                                                                        from any interest in what lies
                                   behind it.

V. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

      Once there was a hummingbird
              who flew into my house
                           and then couldn’t find his way out again.
        Trapped by the glass, he flew
                   over and over into the window,
                  the unsteady whir of his wings like a car
                   revving to free itself from snow.
      I caught him behind the curtain
              when he was vulnerable and imprecise,
            and folded him into cloth.
                          His tiny body shuddered against my palm.

      Outside, I peered in at his luminous wings. I wanted him
                   to trust me, to stay there in my hand.
      He blinked twice,
                      and in a blur, he was gone.

VI. Wish

      All of her finger paintings
      washed away by rain.

VII. Freakshow

In the car from the back seat the little boy asks, Who stays in that jail? The people who made bad choices, I say.  Like what? he asks. Like driving drunk or fistfighting, I say, But don’t worry, Lovey, the really bad guys go to prison. What’s prison? he asks. Oh, I tell him, it’s far away, and there are police guarding it all the time. The whole place is surrounded with huge walls and barbed wire. There’s no way they can get out of there. And then I can hear that he’s crying. What is it? I say. And his voice is very small, But, do they ever get to go outside? Do they ever get to see their moms? And what if they’re really sorry?

VIII. The Only One

           “…is tangled in wishes,
            And so many things that just never turned out right.”

IX. Faith

    If I plant them, my father tells me,
    the seeds he collected from his hollyhocks
    will grow into plants which
    will bloom in two years time.

X. Happily Ever After

   In the papers, there are pictures of the melting–
        the ice caps breaking apart–
        and it’s clear: we must learn
   how to walk here.

XI. In Between Days

     Tonight, the fireflies write on the air in a language we can’t understand.
     And in the mailbox, a letter written in his hand.

XII. Galore

      Yes…galore.

                                                                                 - Heather Swan

Note: In 2007, Kevin Brockmeier wrote an article called “Tangled in Wishes” about Iris DeMent which appeared in The Oxford American, Issue #58. The lines from Section VIII were taken from DeMent’s song “My Life” after which the article was titled.

Heather Swan received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is now pursuing a PhD in Literary Studies. She has been the recipient of The Wisconsin Center for the Book Bookmark Award, the August Derleth Award, a Martha Meier Renk Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Finalist Award. Her poems have appeared in The Cream City Review, Iris, Mothering Magazine, Forward, Wisconsin People and Ideas, The Wisconsin Poets Calendar and The Comstock Review, among others. Her chapbook, The Edge of Damage, is forthcoming from Parallel Press.