I dare you.

I dare you.
Kelsey Ann Kerr

The funny thing about porcelain
is it’s one of the strongest clays.

That’s why they slip it in plaster molds
to make plates and bowls, vases, trinkets and faces—

Each undercut has to be sanded out just so, no defects
in the pieces, except for the ribbing excess,

to be sluffed off and rubbed down with your left thumb,
all of the wrinkles and cracks smoothed.

That way the porcelain won’t fissure in either kiln,
won’t slouch and melt into a bisque.

When each face is painted rosy, finally freckled and fired,
the only accident that can occur is a chip—

unintentionally, anyway… Toss me down a stairwell,
or stomp my high cheeks in,

chew me up like any other tuber from the ground,
listen to my plastic eyes clack against your teeth.

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