<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">MAINE</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">There is culture</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">and there is The Culture</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">of a place making you</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">friendly, wearing your</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">sense on your sleeve.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">Here, on the page, we</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">always want to talk</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">about beauty. Out there—</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">out the window—we leave</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">a mattress in an empty lot.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">Don’t make me find you</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">beautiful. I say that</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">to the ocean. It keeps</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">giving itself away</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">like the girl I was in HS.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">The internal culture shifts</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">too slowly to see like mold</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">grows. I have become</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">myself again. Again,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma">the sensible sand.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<font face="Tahoma"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><font face="Tahoma"><br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Tahoma"><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse"><b>Jennifer Kronovet</b> is the author of <i>Awayward, </i>published by BOA Editions. She is Writer-in-Residence at Washington University and lives in St. Louis, Missouri.</span></span></p>

<br>-- <br>RealPoetik<br><a href="http://www.realpoetik.org" target="_blank">www.realpoetik.org</a><br>