Two Conversation Poems

SkinYou didn't eat the chicken meat.You ate the skin. You can't be full.Hey, do you want a bite of pie?Finish that, then eat one fry.I'll save this bite for you untilyou're done. Look how good yoursister done. Your daddy's talkingto you, hon. Sweetheart, answer.Your daddy's talking to you now.CrossI'm gonna be jumpin' here. You'rehere. You're gonna cross yourarm across my body here. We'regonna go one two three crossthen you're gonna cross me,you're gonna go like this,you're gonna put your right armhere. It's like two people doingone thing. It's like one persondoing it. Ready, set, cross. Nojust put your arm right overhere. Put it right here. Right.It's jump jump jump cross.And then back up. You justback up. So I just go when yousay go? When I say go you go.____Mark Dow's e-chapbook "Feedback" and Other Conversation Poems appears at Mudlark. He is also author of American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons (California).