Four Months Old
All the baby knows
is the flop of her limbs
and the milky blue vein
of sleep and the parking lot
of her animal fear,
the cars left there overnight,
windshields dark and thick
with dew. The rest is
completely unknown,
the complete darkness
of her white room,
where she sleeps
on a clean sheet
printed with baby
crocodiles and lions
wearing diapers.
Copyright Credit: Carrie Fountain, "Four Months Old" from Instant Winner. Copyright © 2014 by Carrie Fountain. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Source: Instant Winner (Penguin Books, 2014)