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Magic

The cars rush along creating the ocean
which in turn creates the cars.
Meanwhile the baby is up and looking at everything
with a crown of sunlight on her head
where the hair should be. Most babies
are bald at a certain age, acquire some hair
and then are bald again, though eighty percent
of the population wear wigs so you don't generally know.
A lawn mower thuts below down the hill,
on the way to the ocean
which is a milky blue (or else the sky is,
reflected in it) and the sky and the sea,
and the lawn mower, are reflected in the air,
filled to capacity and coming apart,
blowing sand and milk over everyone.

From What It Is Like by Charles North. Copyright 2011 by Charles North. Excerpted by permission of the publisher, Turtle Point Press.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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