Secret Ninja

By Kiki Petrosino b. 1979 Kiki Petrosino

You thought you saw me!

But you didn't.

I wear black turtlenecks.

Black panties.

Live in a tall cave!

You don't know where my cave is.

But I come out.

Every day!

To buy mustard & relish!

See what—

A man.

Walking away from me.

No good.

Smash him!

With a loud smash!

Smash his metal table and cards.

Good!

Down in my cave.

Put on my Seahawk gear!

Watch Parade of Homes.

Watch Ron Popeil put chicken & fishes

& burgers & pork & macaroni in the same

box. Hey! I can sell that

box! At school.

Where I smash the gym teacher in his head!

I don't wear my uniform.

I don't clean my locker.

I don't share my lunch with the athletes.

My lunch—mustard.

Straight from the packet.

No one sits next to me.

Keep working my skills.

Keep circling the word blood

in Macbeth.

Good.

It takes days.

Source: Fort Red Border (Sarabande Books, 2009)

Biography

Poet Kiki Petrosino was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of an African American mother and an Italian American father. She earned a BA from the University of Virginia, an MA in humanities from the University of Chicago, and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the author of Fort Red Border (2009).

Fort Red Border—the title is an anagram of “Robert Redford”—addresses love, intimacy, food, race, and . . .

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