Jennifer Esrailian
The Proper Pills
She knew the sizes didn’t mean anything,
it was only the colors that mattered:
Orange, green, yellow and purple.
There was a place for each color by the first day.
Orange in the bottom of her left shoe;
green in the front fold of her hat;
yellow in the seams of her headband;
and purple in the right cup of her brassiere.
On the second day she had a new color: blue.
She fit them in the roll of her right pant leg.
She knew the sizes didn’t mean anything,
it was often the smaller ones she took more care of.
The yellow were the smallest,
and when she ran out of seams in her headband
she would tuck more in the small seams of her underwear.
On the third thy there were two new colors: white and pink.
Those she had no new places for.
So on the fourth day she held
white in one palm of her hand and pink in the other,
and then she waited.
Page(s) 37
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