stunt
by Monique Ferrell

Read the automated transcript.

I want to cross over now it should be a simple thing to do

wake up become self-aware significant and allknowing every single good and halfway
decent futuristic sci-fi movie ensures the computers will get there one day

know better than their masters

so when is it my turn

I have been waiting like a crooked coiled snake in the corner of my life
waiting to know better to one day know it all

it was the promise made by grown folk
who ushered questioning children from the room away
from their adult conversations

rhythms sexual overtones undertones decadeold hurt feelings harsh brutal
simple fatalistic language that ruined families and friendships started affairs brought on
mental breakdowns and ruined every family reunion and funeral of my childhood

you could never get close enough to the core of anything in my be seen and not heard
you’ll understand when you’re older world

adults never let children get close to the burning flame

forget the stove it is life that is catchfire

and so each child emerges all seethrough and witless into a very real cutthroat world believing that a
full set of tits a hairy massive man chest and monthly blood

are enough for what ails you
but it isn’t

"stunt," from attraversiamo (let us cross over) by Monique Ferrell. Copyright © 2016 by Monique Ferrell. Used by permission of NYQ Books.