On the yearly Gangday
they laid out property lines with stones
in the broken grass of Bohemia.
At every boundary they would beat three small boys
because when you are beaten
over nothing
you remember it the rest of your life.
When there were arguments over property lines
years later, like they counted on
they would bring in one of the beaten boys
as a witness.
He would remember where the stone lay
that held his boyhood blood,
they could all get back to owning
what they owned.

Mo Fowler

 

Mo Fowler works as a lumberjack and cleaning supplies saleswoman in Chicago, where the oil in her car is low but her stock of scented markers is not. Her work has been featured in Words Dance (2015), Zone 3 (2018), Motley Mag (2018) and Sinister Wisdom (forthcoming).

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