DELIVERY
Michael Snediker

The birth nearly killed everyone. Except Zeal, whose easy survival
seemed suspicious—

not in the manner of his having known something (manner
of arsonists)—

But in his not knowing anything: Mr Magoo, oblivious
to the swooping

deadly beams just barely knocking off his embryo
hat.

The other one, Titillation,
was tangled.

And the mother was
tangled.

Meanwhile, some nurse is wiping off the other's
zealous blood.

Were she a witch, whispering in his ear (smaller than
a keyhole)

some outside curse. Giving Zeal
front-row seats

to his imminent orphandom,
swaddled

in the starch bosom of a woman
he will never

see again. He is watching the other
two

almost die together. Which means he isn't almost
dying,

which means, far more terrible: the story
is beginning

without him.

© 2006 Michael Snediker