Simeon Berry
Scope
from Fingerling Lakes
Jay's sister Margo
loves snipers
Their altitude
Their theories
Their way of leaving
blotched mannequins
behind them
She fists her pills
and adjusts the pillows
as rain prickles the windows
Her favorite is a Finn
who killed 700 Russians
in 100 days
Who held snow
in his mouth
so his breath
won’t condense
I ask about Jay’s moods
and she snorts
He tries to be careful around you
They all think women
have glass jaws
Her hand trembles
On the coverlet as if
in an updraft
It’s like we’re Camaros
that have been wrecked
and put back together
perfectly
None of them can quite
believe it
At bottom they don’t think
we should be able to do
what we’re able to do
Simeon Berry won the 2013 National Poetry Series for his first collection of poetry, Ampersand Revisited (Fence Books), and the 2014 National Poetry Series for his second book of poetry, Monograph (University of Georgia Press). He has been an Associate Editor for Ploughshares and won a Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artist Grant. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.
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