[i am a natural wonder of crumbs in the beard of a third generation immigrant son of a]

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I am a natural wonder of crumbs in the beard of a third generation immigrant son of a

*****dentist who failed to tunnel his way out of America with a spoon.
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I am a natural wonder of split ends and holes in her shoes my mother born in that

*****decade of parents whose love was fired by bickering and no diploma for you.
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I am a natural wonder beneath the live oaks we aspire and fail to eradicate with our

*****limbs the sun they say then my sister brings her child to light like a clue.
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I am a natural wonder of waiting for my brother to crumble who like myself has survived

*****himself thus far on a diet of gristle and peeling the skin off his childhood.
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I am a natural wonder my friends die in holes a man made of ribbons my country hired

*****he handed them a shovel in the desert he said dig if you want to do good.
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I am a natural wonder I watch through a keyhole the woman who forged but won’t patent

*****me extinguish my name on her tongue like a matchstick one lifetime too soon.
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I am a natural wonder will you weep when I go down in history my burning engines will

*****you blame me if my plane goes down in the sea in the sun in the dogfight.

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To read more poems by Danniel Schoonebeck, visit La Fovea.

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