Kimberly will be performing her poems this evening with Rachel Lehrman at Wurm im Apfel. Doors 8pm at the Cat and Cage, 74 Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9. Free admission, all welcome.

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At the Oktoberfest in Cape Coral she shows me
the ultrasound of her fetus that’s well past the fish stage.
The eyes are open in the water. There’s even a smile.

Here on the outside, blue herons are poking
at something, maybe fish, in a ditch
full of gasoline run-off and McDonalds bags.

It’s noon and down the road on the Miccosukee reservation,
a man leans a sign against his fence as he does each day, even after
Obama. It reads: George Bush we don’t like your war. Go back to England.

Here, the herons’ greasy feathers hang and flap
from their bones like the fringe of this festive tablecloth.
The corner of the ultrasound image is slid
under a beer stein to keep it from blowing away.

Will I say that I want us all to go back to England,
or Germany, or wherever, with my eyes open, smiling?
Will I so ruin this celebration of impending birth and Germanness?
Will I say I am glad for this Saturday of out-of-tune waltzes
and sausages full of by-products? Glad to stare
the next generation in the viscous, beer-stained face?

I can only say that I am not smiling. My eyes are open.
I am thrilled not to be in that water.

More on Kimberly’s work at her website.