Dodo Eraser

Grandma Watched

The first few times I entered
the coop through the chute.
Grandma tried to keep me
out by talking up the rooster,
whom I watched kill
one of the spring kittens.

I was quite a bit bigger
than the kitten and had boots
with rubber up to my knees,
which must be impenetrable 
to chicken feet.

This was a tactical error.

The day Butterscotch ribboned
my back and yellowed t-shirt
Grandpa burst through the side
door barking like the old lab
used to do before the foxes
and kittens ran faster than
his nose.

Novelties

I bought a fake arm
from the back page
of Boys’ Life,
the official magazine
of Boy Scouts

smooth, pared nails
stiff plastic veins
jutting from a stuffed
white button-down
sleeve seams sewn
with excess fabric
to catch in doors
or family car trunk
now shoulder height
above basement stairs

Grandma dropped eggs
on the linoleum tile
dandelion yellow
already, now slick
and sun-spotted

hidden behind grandpa
in his rocking chair
I thought of the stroke
that kept him there
after grandma
stopped crying

paper-thin skin
wrapped in plastic

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Chris Dolan works in the automotive industry and is the founding editor of One Fall Review. He is angry about the nitrate levels in Iowa’s drinking water. Reader at Black Fox Literary Magazine and Flash Fiction Magazine. Chris’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Maudlin House, and The Disappointed Housewife.