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Sally Tries At Ruin

Kristin Kelly

She heard it from an island—
Betty, many are gone. The wrecked sand, the sound

they made. Elephants tackling glass.

Nothing to do but make a plan.

List 1: lives to do. List 2: things to live.
We made a parade for the dead,

we became a garden.

List 3: start at the end.

Shock is suffered most by children.
We need bulldozers.


List 4: love everything close, use your inside
voice. It’s as if nothing. It’s less than that—

I watched a monkey jump over a man
to wrestle a dog.


List 5 has a truck but nothing
stops anything—

from inside a house, inside a room
excessive with light and controllable water.



Kristin Kelly

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