[un.der.sto.ry] / Karen Dietrich

  dancing girl press, 2013$7.00  Karen Dietrich’s poetry chapbook, Anchor Glass, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Bellingham Review, PANK, Main Street Rag, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. She teaches part-time at a community college and lives near Pittsburgh, PA. Her memoir, The Girl Factory, is due out in October. Website: karendietrich.net THIS WORLD CAN ONLY TOLERATE SO MUCH SWEETNESS AND LIGHT Stop walking around like all the days were made for you I will tell you a secret – they were not Think of the starving poster children tacked above garbage cans in some elementary school cafeteria You scraped chicken pinwheel and whipped potatoes into the trash with the side of your fork You used to dream about Africa, children eating rice with their hands Once, a girl offered you a taste, her fingers long and dark the sun denting the tops of your heads You woke up in a canopy bed dust ruffle, pillow shams, all of it pin