If you are traveling with a live child

by Betsy Johnson-Miller

forget canyons,
    monuments
they are all genitalia anyway

which is why fathers
always take pictures

and wouldn't Freud have a cigar
day with that

but no one is allowed
to smoke anymore

    especially
after sex
because it kills
the feng shui
of the moment

and what is traveling
besides moments

    where we are

where we are not meant to be

which explains
    the pictures

the desire

to say to anyone
who will listen

I was here.

 

Betsy Johnson-Miller received an MFA from Bennington College and lives in Illinois. Her work has appeared or will appear in The Seattle Review, 5 a.m., The Chiron Review, Calyx, Phoebe and Ascent.