David Nielsen

To Rosie, Not Yet Three

Funny thing
asking—
Are you poopy?

—and meaning it
so sincerely, no sarcasm

or mockery,
just earnest desire

to know
if there’s a load

in your shorts.
And you, crouched

beneath the baby grand,
telling me, no,

when the stink
is as thick as this August air,

lying to my face,
as sweet

as an elevator love song.

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David Nielsen teaches English at Brigham Young University. His poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, Willow Springs, The Cream City Review, and elsewhere.