[Listen to a reading of this poem.]

steps out of a suitcase
bigger than her britches
no sturdy yardarm to steady
the pitched battle of her nerves

tosses anger overboard -
svelte anchor of petty hurts -
in the venison canal
where meter eaters
lunch with e. coli,
poled passengers fulminate,

and, she,
astride a mute buoy bobbing,
recalls that loquacious bully
in her mom's glove compartment