Bubble Wrap

"Want to turn on CNN,
see if there've been any
disasters?"

*

In the dream,
you slip inside me.

Ponzi scheme; rhyme scheme.

The child wants his mother
to put her head
where his is, see
what he sees.

*

In the dream
inside the dream,

our new roommates
are arguing:

"These are not
'astro-turf' calls,

and we're all populists
now."

*

Now an engine's
single indrawn breath.

(The black hole
at the heart

of it
is taking it

all back.)

*

An immigrant
sells scorpions
of twisted electrical wire
in front of the Rite-Aid.

"Bubble Wrap" from Money Shot (Wesleyan University Press, 2011). Copyright © 2011 by Rae Armantrout. Reprinted with the permission of the author.