Mind your head, please, mind its tubes and struts, mind
the newspaper stuffed in the corners to keep the slosh in,

mind its edges and the old checkerboard your dad left
in there. When you kick your head beneath tables,

remember the dust lining the floorboards, old paperclips,
splinters that may catch on soft tissues. Wipe your head

on a damp cloth. Avoid harsh chemical cleaners—use only
warm soap and water. And most of all, mind your outside:

nostrils, eyes, the long throat. The skin of your kneecaps,
easily torn. Mind the new paint we gave you.

–Morgan Adams,
In Nonestica (2013)
Accents Publishing

More from In Nonestica and Morgan Adams:

• Accents Poets Nominated for the Pushcart Prize
• “Imprint”
• “Visitors”
• “House”
• Morgan Adams’s Lexington Poetry Month Submissions

Morgan Adams was born and raised in a bookstore in Lexington, Kentucky and wrote her own first “book” at the age of five. She graduated from Berea College and earned her M.F.A. in poetry from Indiana University. Her work often draws upon myth, folklore, and family history.