[mp3@64kbps - 16.6MB]
Read by: Kara Shallenberg
Social Studies
by Jeffrey Paggi
Show the school children
by Jeffrey Paggi
Show the school children
an educational video on the maternal habits
of orangutans. Mothers stay with their
children for eight years. Tomorrow
is the field trip to the science center.
The voice-over narrates the facts:
"Adolescent males usually break ties
with their mothers, but adolescent females
return frequently to spend time around their mothers."
Potential sets like yogurt: fabled by these daughters of memory,
a boy daydreams while the video plays.
I see his head begin to fall, but do not nudge.
In his daydream he hears his mother's whispers
seep like wetted ash out clouds and fall like
melted wax. The ocean receives the boy's
mother's whispers, but the boy is scared.
He realizes why he is scared when he looks out
at the horizon and sees the ocean falling off the
side of the earth. All his mother's whispers leak.
The boy begins to wet his pants, and whimper,
"Momma, momma, momma."
Wake the boy. After he cleans up, give him
popsicle sticks. Tell him, "build an arc.
The ocean is your map. Your voice in the sail."
The Sea fails to notice
the widening tear in the horizon.
As if the blue of the ocean,
and that of the sky
were seamless.
of orangutans. Mothers stay with their
children for eight years. Tomorrow
is the field trip to the science center.
The voice-over narrates the facts:
"Adolescent males usually break ties
with their mothers, but adolescent females
return frequently to spend time around their mothers."
Potential sets like yogurt: fabled by these daughters of memory,
a boy daydreams while the video plays.
I see his head begin to fall, but do not nudge.
In his daydream he hears his mother's whispers
seep like wetted ash out clouds and fall like
melted wax. The ocean receives the boy's
mother's whispers, but the boy is scared.
He realizes why he is scared when he looks out
at the horizon and sees the ocean falling off the
side of the earth. All his mother's whispers leak.
The boy begins to wet his pants, and whimper,
"Momma, momma, momma."
Wake the boy. After he cleans up, give him
popsicle sticks. Tell him, "build an arc.
The ocean is your map. Your voice in the sail."
The Sea fails to notice
the widening tear in the horizon.
As if the blue of the ocean,
and that of the sky
were seamless.
