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OKAY GOING TO CHECK PCBCOS MATCHUPS NOAW.
Prompt 1

i remember
rows and rows of documentaries
lined up on the shelves next to books

and a very fancy water cooler that we couldn’t get because it was expensive
and a spiral staircase that led
to a place with a lot of machines
and a large television

and my two great aunts serving food
only one of which was related to the family
everyone kept emphasizing
“it’s a different kind of love!”
but i still couldn’t figure out how she was my aunt

and outside the house was built on a hill
with its right leg six feet longer than its left
“make sure to put on the breaks
so no one sues you when your car rolls into theirs!”

but mostly
i stole those smithsonian video tapes
and learned about dinosaurs
(and volcanoes)
and when the television was stolen
(by the adults)
i laid out their smithsonian books out in a row
and read them all.

“Clouds,” one said “make an anvil
shape when they grow too tall.”

“Velociraptors,” one said “are not really
as big as Jurassic Park makes them.”

“Tools,” one said “represent
culture.”



Prompt 2
this is a lai. i dislike the form |V

volcano
this fence marks the line
where that old mountain spine
blows out its insides—
the fiery brine
escapes earthen mine—
and the heated tide,
after devouring pine
and natural shrine—
subsides.