Barbie Chang Pokes Through

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Barbie Chang pokes through her

              mother’s purse

the little brown hearse of lipstick and

              blush her mother would

have let her go through her purse

              because she pursued

her mother’s dreams her mother’s last

              call on her last cell phone

on June 19 what was Barbie doing on

              June 19 she was probably

thinking about the moon she hasn’t

              looked at for 91 months

and how the moon was a medal she

              wanted around her neck

she was probably thinking about the

              Circle of women at

school or circling and striking words

              shifting points of view

thinking about how an acorn with its

              small hat to cover it is

a metaphor for truth now she is left with

              small images of her

mother that come and hover and leave

              whenever they please

little hummingbirds of death such as how

              her mother wanted

a Sprite but couldn’t remember the name

              of it how her eyes looked

slightly crossed on the day before she died

              how she could only

breathe through her abdomen that

              went up and down

like the machine the body isn’t how

              her stillness was

deafening how she was warm for

              so long after