The Changeling

by Theodora Goss

What do you do? He wore his leather jacket to school,

Pulled the fire alarm, felt up one of the nuns.

Detention was a time to draw rocketships

Or racecars. He liked things that go fast (skateboards),

Things that were secret (cellars), things that squealed

(Mice mostly, but also hamsters). He never harmed them

But put them in desks, purses, girls' hair.

He read books on poisonous mushrooms and making bombs.

What do you do? Tell him, you are a doll

Created from sticks and feathers? Go back where

You came from? He would grin, get your daughter pregnant,

Set your barn on fire.