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Practicing for the Carnival
Laura Winter

a giraffe
in velvet and feather boas
stilts down the street,
juggles tree branches
along the way.

children stop
their play
and the fireman asks
what are you?

she bends wide
and low,
reaches for
the astonished smallness
of his hand,
whatever you want me to be.

—
Laura Winter lives in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of numerous collections of poetry, broadsides, and performance projects. Her poems have been translated into multiple languages, set to music, and performed as song cycles. When Winter performs with musicians, she uses the language of poetry as an instrument. Winter occasionally publishes TAKE OUT, a bag-a-zine featuring visual art, writing, and music.

Winter’s US-Mexico borderlands collaboration with photographer Terri Warpinski, Liminal Matter: Fences and Liminal Matter: Traces is in numerous special collections such as Stanford University Library, Amherst College, and Yale University.

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Have you read these poems:
Amusement by Craig Cotter
When He Strolled the Mall by Merrill Oliver Douglas

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