Birthday

she lives in this house over there
has her world outside it.
grapples the earth with her fingers and mouth
she's five years old.
threads worms on a string
keeps spiders in her pockets
collects fly-wings in a jar
scrubs horse-files and pinches them on a line.

she's got one friend he lives next door
they listen to the weather
he knows how many freckles she's got, she scraches his beard.
she's painting huge books
glues them together, they saw a big raven
it glided down the sky-she touched it.

today's a birthday-they re' smoking cigars
he got a chain of flowers
sows a bird in her knickers

they're smoking cigars
lie in the bathtub, chain of flowers
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