Jen Jabaily-Blackburn

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Nursery Song

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What belongs to me

what’s mine to tell

it’s hard to know

I remember falling

asleep in a hammock

on the bright olive

green porch

my grandmother

holding my arm

gently turning

my hand my wrist

like the clapper of a bell

saying something

in the neighborhood

of but the abbéss oh feck oh feck

Betty I bet a bet on Fett

Becky odd vet divests a net

“behi a beh a feh a feh”

I don’t know

if I am doing violence

or if violence has been done to me

a gradual stripping

I don’t know which

spirits never to be called

are about to knock

I can’t speak to my render’s

accuracy      but it rings

you are safe

you can sleep

I turn your hand

I turn your wrist

you can sleep

you are safe

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