Stoppers
Is it a roofing nail? Its
point meant to fill
a cervix. Later, with legs
splayed to lock it in.
Next a witch’s wand,
its head with a crown
to dig in. Which it did,
making women sterile.
The squiggle followed,
meant to soften our
opinions. Touching its tail
every month means you re
safe.
Shaped alter the key men
use to shut off water,
wrapped in copper coils (a
natural spermicide) is the
letter T.
Women think
of all the letters
left to try.
And who invented
the gun to propel it into
place?
Russ Meyers? Another
excuse to shoot her in the
pussy.
Little Alien
When they found you
where you shouldn’t have
been, lcnee-deep in a pile of guts like Trump
warned, you looked shocked and afraid.
You were supposed to
stay put, not migrate to
places you weren’t welcomed.
You were given a good job to doโyou failed.
We’ve traced your path,
noted all the damage
you’ve done, and
repaired as much as we
could. But all is lostโa
barren desert.
We will be blamed for
bringing you hereโfor
the job you didn’t do and
the damage you did do.
And don’t try to blame
us for pushing you too
hard, driving you to where
we found you. Others,
like you, didn’t abandon
their posts. This is on you.
Toys
First it was the giant
towering Space Needle
darkening a pink sky. He
was afraid when
it moved like a huge
hypodermic syringe
floating in his warm
pee-filled sea.
A doctor would call
it a foreign body. When it
shrunk, tiny as a hand-tied
fly, the baby kicked it.
The IUD was inside his
fist when he was born. It
was his. He couldn’t give
up his first toy.
Look at the family portrait,
how big he is, towering over
his shrinking mother, smiling
in his military best.
Not surprising he became a
sheriff, the feel of metal in
his hand, so primal
according to Freud.
His woman, a wiry
copper-headed beauty
with springy curls, is his newest toy.
Sandra Sylvia Nelson has had work in many magazines including The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry Northwest, Yankee, The North American Review, The Iowa Review, and Ms. Magazine. She’s in Hard Choices an anthology by The Iowa Review and in the textbook Exploring Literature by Longman Press for the past 20 years.
