By Lance Larsen

Map day in Social Studies: our duty was to save
good Europe from bad Russia by giving
each country its proper name and a color
from the rainbow. Fifth grade, and the new girl
sitting in front of me, some move-in
Carla from California, shook out her hair.
Of course, it spilled on my map. Of course,
it basked there, a breathing animal. You can’t
ask a beautiful girl to please move her beautiful
hair, especially if it’s goldish and unruly
and smells like the sea. How about move the hair
yourself or re-position the map? No sirree.
Girls have spies in their hair and think you
have a crush on them, which in this case—
okay, yes. Sometimes allure stuns us into stillness.
I left east Europe blank but breathed in
Carla’s world. Hungary, Malta, Bulgaria, Greece . . .
Called her hair every magic name in the book.

---

Lance Larsen, former poet laueate of Utah, recently published his sixth poetry collection, Making a Kingdom of It (University of Tampa Press, 2024). His honors include a Pushcart Prize, an NEA fellowship, and inclusion in Best American Poetry. He teaches at BYU and like aphorisms: “A woman needs a man the way a manatee needs a glockenspiel.” Sometimes he juggles.