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[I was told the best rituals]

I was told the best rituals 
are cast by children

inside covert forts, hedges
carved out by older 

siblings or the wolf-man from 
a nightmare in the nineteenth 

century. In their spaghetti jars: 
ghosts, not June bugs or ladybirds or 

unreasonable expectations 
to be happy. Some children are not 

happy. Some rake their own
backs with pinion

pinecones & play possum 
under their father’s duvet & 

some make potent teas—
concocted potion of molecules— 

rage wrapped in devotion & 
some keep diaries on how to trap 

light, rituals that sever 
the head of anyone 

who grows up without 
healing their wounds.
 
 

Shannon Hardwick

Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick's work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Gulf Coast Journal, Salamander, South Dakota Review, Plume Poetry Journal, The Texas Observer, Four Way Review, The Missouri Review, Sixth Finch, and Passages North, among others.

About

Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick's work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Gulf Coast Journal, Salamander, South Dakota Review, Plume Poetry Journal, The Texas Observer, Four Way Review, The Missouri Review, Sixth Finch, and Passages North, among others.