Viral
Karen Donovan
The difference between dust and
Bittersweet flaming the treetops
Constant the having to reinvent
The its being so leaky
Meanwhile a rabid skunk
Is dying in the geraniums
Blooms near total aphasia
The difference between dust and
Pattern computing in my thumbprint
Pi the music the bittersweet flaming
Near total eclipsing its leaky
Pink lingering after the truck bombs
The getting and staying off zero
The getting
After the truck bombs
The difference between zero and
Here
Shivers the plus and minus
Skunk mind
Fever mind
Won't you eat
Won't you eat something
~~~~~
Karen Donovan's first collection of poetry, Fugitive Red, won the Juniper Prize for Poetry. For 20 years she coedited Paragraph, a journal of short prose published by Oat City Press. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and now works in Providence.