Holly Thompson-IV
Mid-Afternoon Tea
after the pound cake
with strawberries
mikan oranges
and caramel Fauchon tea
she shows us the centipede
air-lifted from the floor
with a pair of chopsticks
and placed in a jam jar
of shochu where it floats—
sea serpent in spirits
now soaked with poison
so that when
a live centipede
S-tracks across
her leg or wrist or neck
when she is sleeping
as it will
one night
in a house like this
in the country
and bites
she is ready
with the antidote
after the pound cake
with strawberries
mikan oranges
and caramel Fauchon tea
she shows us the centipede
air-lifted from the floor
with a pair of chopsticks
and placed in a jam jar
of shochu where it floats—
sea serpent in spirits
now soaked with poison
so that when
a live centipede
S-tracks across
her leg or wrist or neck
when she is sleeping
as it will
one night
in a house like this
in the country
and bites
she is ready
with the antidote