covers everything

eventually mutes us with its

beauty and

whiteness

Books

My parents won’t buy us

anything but books

books books books

everywhere in all shapes

everywhere all the time

Clara reads mostly Nancy Drew

she reads them over and

over and over again

whenever I try and touch

them or read them she grabs

them back or yells at me

mine, don’t touch

she always says

my mom won’t buy any

Nancy Drew for me because

no doubles, waste of money

and because Clara is older

she gets everything first

once in a while when Clara isn’t

looking I take one I know she’s

just finished and read it with

a flashlight under my

covers at night

my favorite Nancy Drew book

is The Clue of the Leaning Chimney

because there are

Chinese people in it

I try and read as fast as I can

so I can put the book back

the next day

those days at school I’m so

tired I feel like I’m walking

in a gray cloud

The Secret in
The Secret of the Old Clock

Up in the corner

on page 3 of Clara’s

Nancy Drew book

The Secret of the Old Clock is

a small piece of

hair stuck to the paper by

the tiny bulb of a tiny root

the hair is only around

one centimeter long as if

someone has lightly drawn a

little line on the page with a pencil

and put a little dot on the end

I don’t want to

touch it but it stares back

at me daring me to ask questions

the words on the page

blurred all I can see is

the little

black line

another on page 6 another

slightly longer on page 8

another on page 11

two on page 14 stare

back at me

calling me in

calling

me

in

No One

No one can figure out why

Clara’s hair keeps falling out

I find more and more pieces all

around the house mostly in

books but also on

the bathroom counter

on the floor

in the car

Clara’s bald patch isn’t

all bare but takes up the

top of her head

a big oval littered with

bits of hair all tiny

short one-centimeter pieces that

stick straight up

wanting to grow long trying

to grow long but

unable to grow long

no one can figure out

why no one else can figure out why

her hair is falling out

everyone else thinks someone

else should know

maybe the

full moon made her hair fall out

maybe she is an alien

maybe the snow makes

her hair fall out

why does

Clara’s hair insist on

leaving

its country

Wig Shop

Just two weeks ago

we had gone to the wig shop

bodiless white Styrofoam heads

everywhere

brown wigs

blond wigs

the sign said some

were made of real hair

I shivered

thinking some of these might

be from dead people

the black wigs are

in the back

said the woman after

she looked at us