2007
Jessica Fordham Kidd
I mysticated the next-door neighbors,
the poor ones
in the brightly colored house.
The house that is slowly falling in.
The people in the pines.
I am in the pines.
My neighbors have a variety of magics.
Their children fear cars,
their old wear hair rollers,
their dogs have bald spots.
We eat the same stuff, so I know it’s not the biscuits.
This place is at the mercy of the river.
I’m the neighbor that slinks through cattails
and beckons everyone to the sandbar.
Author’s Bio:
JESSICA FORDHAM KIDD lives, writes, and teaches in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.