Child of Pentacles

In Forma Pauperis
by H.E. Casson

roundworms left to starve
can carry in their genes
the memory of hunger¹.

I’ll tell you what this means:

the absence in a pocket
of coin or cash or cards
can carve into your progeny
hereditary scars

so sing and dance and touch and scream
(the bedrock of the soul)
invent a truer currency
to keep your children whole

^{1. Duke University. Starvation effects handed down for generations: Third-generation nematode worms show signs of surviving famine. ScienceDaily, 31 July 2015.}

H. E. Casson (they/them) is a Toronto-area writer whose work has recently appeared in Apparition Lit, Stonecrop Review, Terse, The Twofer Compendium, and Writers Resist. They are currently working to help create a workshop for LGBPTQIA2S+ writers in their community.