Mila Natasha Mendez

IMPROVISATION

The raccoon has been waiting
92 years at his table at the local inn
for his family to join him
for dinner. He has finished
a centerpiece of pine cones.

The centerpiece is actually a pinecone,
92 feet tall, made of pine cones.
He is leasing the center
of the centerpiece of pine cones
to a family of jazz musicians.

The father plays trumpet.
The mother dabbles songs.
The children play
percussion instruments fashioned
from hollow stones.

It’s quite a spectacle.

If you come again next week,
there is a rumor
the musicians will give birth
to a baby girl playing bongos
while crows clap with their tongues
and the air dries
to brittleness.

LITTLE LABOR

I.                 II.

I                  There was nothing else to do
was             except to watch the raccoons
a                  build their mini-malls.
tree             They are always trying something
in                new to get the cubs excited about
the              community. Nothing else has
woods         worked as well as this mini-mall.
once.           The cubs are painting a mural
I                  with their tails and noses. I sing
stood           in tune with their movements,
and              but the sound echoes inside me
stood           where there are no ears to hear it.
and              Once their tails find a rhythm though,
stood.          I hum along and hum and hum and
                                                hum and hum and hum.

MURDER
(click to read)

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Mila Natasha Mendez is passionate about education and the arts, and this is her first published work. After teaching English literature in Monterrey, NL, Mexico, she has recently moved to Toronto, ON, Canada to study sexuality at York University.