^
It’s your city that’s in the flood zone the whole
city which now is yours a paper
bowl filled with water and the cats everywhere
in little stitches moving out
^
Out-moving stitches
litter in everywhere cats
the and
and water with fillings
your bowl or paper burns
it’s yours now
which city holes the zone
flooding the in
that’s city
you’re it
^
It: you are city
It: that’s in the flooding
which zones the holes
City which now you’re
it: burn paper or bowl your fillings
with water and and
the cats everywhere
in little stitches
move out
^
Out.
Move.
Stitches litter everywhere.
Cats.
The and and water’s width
filling your bowl.
Your paper burns.
It’s yours now.
With city holes.
The zones which flood.
The in that’s it.
City are you it.
Anne Marie Rooney is the author of Spitshine (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2012). She has won the Iowa Review Award, the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, the Amy Award, and others, and been featured in the Best New Poets and Best American Poetry anthologies. Born and raised in New York City, she currently lives in New Orleans, where she is a teaching artist.
