If, as he says,
this strip of trees, a make

to wood enough of this home
for snakes and runners, is a place

for murder—those dwellers,
says he, body the crisis,

give it chances. Then only
the jungle comes, swallows

the watches he and his Eve
made. Names but tell,

but names
made Eve his, and he watches

the swallows. Come, jungle,
the only. Then chance it.

Give, crisis the body.
He says dwellers, those

murders for place, are runners,
and snake for home. This. Of enough

wood to make a tree of. Strip
this? says he. As if.

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.

She is also editor-in-chief and poetry editor of Osedax Press.

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.

She is also editor-in-chief and poetry editor of Osedax Press.

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.

She is also editor-in-chief and poetry editor of Osedax Press.

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
Accents Publishing

More from In Nonestica and Morgan Adams:

• “Patchwork Girl”
• Accents Poets Nominated for the Pushcart Prize
• “Imprint”
• “Visitors”
• “House”

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.

She is also editor-in-chief and poetry editor of Osedax Press.

Have you ever met a girl who’s half
.             as clever? Never! And it’s true,

                  everything in my
house folds up: the bed creases
                  along lines of sheets—even

my elbows, my knees, collapse
                  for easy storage—you
know Mother was

a crazy quilt, but this girl’s
                  better—my head is filled
with seating charts

                  and wood biscuits, a few grains
of poesy all mixed
                  in the matter—I polish

my eyes each morning, I
                  curl felt tongue around names
of old fairy kings—yes, bones

                  nothing but batting—pull
a hangnail, lose the hand—
                  but, listen!

–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.

She is also editor-in-chief and poetry editor of Osedax Press.