The Maynard
Spring 2018

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Synonyms For Shelter

Hole in the wall: Crawl into the bottom bunk—a shelter from nothing,
kicking the wall, clonidine keeps you from scratching out your own
eyes, but barely, a pair of Barbie panties, looking everywhere for the

Protector: You say you’re copacetic, a thesaurus open beside you because
nobody will believe it anyway, even if they understand. So you ask the girl
with the Prozac tattoo and the drug dealer boyfriend if she can spare a

Joint: Your face looks like a stippled painting where your skin tries to
break through your lies, your collection of words as if you’re at The New
Yorker Festival , an overpriced bottle of rosé and a cigar, hiding from the

Security: The dictionary may make you sound bombastic, but it will not
stop your fingers from turning yellow—the mercury that poisoned what
could’ve been. Overexposure was invented long before you came along.
A selfie stick to protect from oncoming traffic—who said this was a good

Hideout: A Hope tattoo begets loss, an unroofed shelter—what that’s
called is not in your dictionary or thesaurus. Hope’s mistress? The Love

Shack: The dank smoke pit is missing a wall where anger took charge.
You find a better word—acrimony. Looking for the roof that won’t
collapse, the glass slipper that won’t shatter, the nicotine haven, the yellow

Umbrella: What’s water? the little fish asks. What’s future? the foundling
asks with scabbed knees and a crucifix necklace, playing with a Jenga

Tower: The mapmaker’s children go without direction, the photographer’s,
without a reflection. The hermit’s, without a Picasso, hula hoop, prayer or

Hermitage: The mirror was invented before anyone wanted to see themselves.
That’s more true here than anywhere. Every night you dream of the same

Crib: Every ancestor before you survived so you could sleep beside a girl
who tried to take a rat outside in as a pet. The hat maker’s children never
have friends. At midnight you find a tooth and a used condom beneath your

Shadow: You absquatulated your own story and are left with quarter
flaps in your bra. Looking for tomorrow in a mirror that never tells you
what you want to hear. You want to think your acne are stars. A cat
sprays outside, feral as the shelter girls, the tongue of a tiger, marking his

Turf: A Foundling wanders outside the shelter gate, searching for the
aftermath of the apocalypse before it’s started. Not every orphan wants a

Guardian: You want a foundling to take you back, back, back, before
any of this—back to 1839 when daguerreotype was invented, cats
were psychics, Darwin married his cousin and women were put in the

Sanctuary: The thesaurus is your only friend. Trust is earned, you say
to yourself. A red circle—first on the list of synonyms for shelter—

Asylum.