Babel Grove
Hoarse, a girl or girls sleep / plea for more
time / weak in the valley         where

the man lives

keeping post /             reveling quiet in the wreck
but the girls learn that once burned
enough times, skin starts to grow back

/ they learn to use wrists
to foretell storms

& all is safe until somewhere

a brother
learns a magic trick:

open your mouth, he says / open

& they do.

Karissa Morton Carter is originally from Des Moines, Iowa, & currently lives in Denton, Texas. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Indiana Review, Cream City Review, Guernica, Crab Orchard Review, Devil’s Lake, & The Paris-American, among other places.