Elements of Accounting
By Sandy Longhorn
The girl born at the edge
of a copper-colored river
returns, prefers her wrists
cuffed
by swift currents
rather than caution-stilled
by the many sister-gazes.
her back on
is a ledger, her mother
the pencil and its precise
figures that trap
loss in columns.
Debt a whispered word,
the harsh ring of a phone
no one answers.
The girl hoards pennies
held back from the accounting,
feels the pocket-weight
when she sneaks
to the leafy riverbank and
spends
all her wishes watching
the river wash
the grubby coins clean.
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