Tank
Emma Hardison

​
Daughter: Does God taste like chicken?
Brother: If chickens didn’t exist, yes.
Mother: What?
Mother: You sound like me in college.
​
Every year I live
through a day without knowing to say happy birthday
and for now I must admire myself for
the people who don’t. My muscles melt
my body together but also stretch it farther apart, so
where will my goldfish fit in 2019?

After every dinner we push our chairs back
and call our friends to tell them:
there is a small ecosystem in my mouth and
a collection of pearls for everyone we’ve lost
I named the first goldfish Carl, because he is
orange and all Carls are a little orange. My second one
was Lily, a secret name for
an obvious person.


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