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Poems

Mean Boy Prophet

By Jessica Fordham Kidd From Issue No. 3

When Bad Jamie was Jamie

and Clarence was just one Clarence,

they would pack sandwiches,

mason jars of milk, mickey mouse

fishing poles, and a snuff can of worms

to fish off Granny’s bridge.

Sometimes Clarence would tamp down the briars

before Jamie walked up on them.

Sometimes he let them whip up behind him

and cut little threads in Jamie’s arms.

Sometimes an owl would call out

in the dark afternoon of the woods.

Sometimes the boys turned out their pockets,

but sometimes they forgot.

Clarence had stories about how rich

the two of them would get when they were older

or about how ghosts were going to rise up

out of the pasture soon and haunt Jamie so hard.

It just depended on the way light

filtered through the leaves and hit the water

of the little creek below Granny’s bridge.

About Jessica Fordham Kidd More From Issue No. 3