“Peas and Barbies” by Catherine Graham
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Peas and Barbies” by Catherine Graham.
Peas and Barbies
By Catherine Graham
Make her naked and still she smiles,
exposing breasts without nipples.
Nipple.
We giggled at the word in the secret book
where the small arrow pointed.
Nipple.
We said it at the same time.
I made a doll of mashed potato
with nipple-peas on my plate.
Take charge and spit.
Witless move. Nanaโs looking.
Donโt play with your food says the line
in her lips that melts the wizard in mine.
She blinks the nippled world away.
I give the world too much.
Fork more food in your mouth
and keep your eyes shut;
be an empty-headed thing
with shredded carrot hair.
Now roll on into Vegetable Land
where potatoes rule and peas shrivel
when told to stack up like tennis balls
on a Prince racquet.
Which one will tip the hill?
This pea. That.
โEat your meal. Itโs getting cold.
Youโll be hungry later.โ
Iโll chew my hair.
โNipple.โ
after โBarbieโ by Dorothy Molloy
Copyright ยฉ Catherine Graham
Previously published in Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects (Wolsak and Wynn, 2013).
Catherine Grahamโs poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, shortlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry and on CBC Radio. Her eighth book, รther: An Out-of-Body Lyric, was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, Toronto Book Award, and won the Fred Kerner Book Award. Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend Weโre Dead: New and Selected is her ninth book. Two collections are forthcoming. www.catherinegraham.com @catgrahampoet
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