Two
poems from Julie Larios's A Quiet Day in the Arm and Leg
Shop
followed
by a note on the author
Errata
bad
should read bed
ill-starved should read ill-starred
Insert the word dropped before on his head
doling out kisses should read dealing the cards
Insert as line 12
And the game when it ended
Insert at the end of line 13
confounded
blood should read blotto
high noon should read forever
kissed should read clobbered
frost should read fever
Insert an ellipsis after remember
Insert the words that was after whoever
God,
Aware of Free Will, Asks a Favor
Oh,
my little puppets, mes petites,
with your me-fingered arms
which are nowhere near
as fearsome as mine (mine are divine
and tattooed with a busted flush) –
–
will you wave, s'il vous plait,
to the nice people, the Punched
and Judyed, will you do it for my sake
and for theirs, comme ça?
In the right hand, a broom for beating.
In the left, a black beret.
Oh!
We could amuse and delight!
Oh! We could gather French squeals!
You two petits chous, and me
with my hands up your cavities.
"Non! Non!" "Oui! Oui! Oui!"
What
a stir we could create:
you with your heads of papier mache
and me with my feel for dialogue.
©
Julie
Larios is a previous winner of the Academy of American Poets
Prize and the Pushcart Prize. Her work was selected for The
Best American Poetry (2006 and 2007) and for The Best
New Poets (2006.) For five years, she was poetry editor
of the Cortland Review, and she now teaches in the MFA-WC
program at Vermont College.
"Errata"
first appeared in The Atlantic, and "God, Aware
of Free Will, Asks a Favor" first appeared in Field.
