Tammy Robacker
Another Girl Goes Down
Into a ditch. Maybe she hit
a rock. Maybe she did not
pay close attention. Maybe
she’s only twelve whereas
threat is an f-10. American
truck with a large bed. Used
to haul things like lumber.
Dogs. Men. Men who ride
wild in mongrel packs and
play air guitar or smoke up
their cigarettes. Men who
know how to disintegrate
the world from a Ford
window. Their ashtray. A
dump site shoveled down
deep just for them and the
ground opened just for her.
Packing List for the Damaged
she-wolf eyes
snake pupils
ear of lynx
kodiak paws
roach thorax
can of kerosene
tail of newt
spare wishbone
panther claws
bottle of bitters
lithium
tiger balm
schmear of snail
rabbit foot
bull’s heartbeat
stretch of tentacle
tortoise shell
wild monkey screech
Tammy Robacker is a Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence award winner (2011) and TAIP grant recipient (2009). Her chapbook, Cuttings, won the 2015 Keystone Chapbook Prize from Seven Kitchens Press. Tammy published her first collection of poetry, The Vicissitudes, in 2009 (Pearle Publications). Tammy’s poetry has appeared in Menacing Hedge, Chiron Review, VoiceCatcher, Duende, Crab Creek Review, WomenArts, and Synesthesia. Currently enrolled in the RWW MFA program in Creative Writing at Pacific Lutheran University, Tammy lives in Oregon. Her second poetry book Villain Songs is forthcoming with ELJ Publications in 2016.
