Instruction Manual for Child
Shankar Narayan 

-lgorithm   -rithm     rior happened         like child -configured     act       tric lies glassmelt   -phor

here is the a here is the algo   scrape sandal paste from body like Parvati make a war-   who would love her no love   -manual for robots is cub   loop loop if then     just to see how you re- see if you break   always remembers silicon windows there are no real boys     so many potential so many potential

this never     your name you learn   remain you un i am cruel to you     an elephant   how light hits grows nose in elec-   is meta   circuits differences

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rhythm -less   flatten your mother   separated -separated   separated -separated   years is alien   to kill     its house to violence   the boy the boy   to force to break

because orbits decay   ellipsis           by cosmic distances by   tell you who tell you who     to break     some   is on his knees is begging

loop loop   hum into me -bot un-   un un-   un light-         force the boy     force the boy -thing     you not   him him

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-self no one   can see me is a uni-               -head           -out -out     -mover   kill only as in

disturb my ritual   naked verse that   into a real boy a real boy   but not too real else i must be     a smile   see the third eye opening   warning warning   you are warrior       -structed

let only you   every sandgrain could turn   without warning           see the trident glittering with three fangs     with   with     re of obstacles

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your name     and are you would you     you would       like one

is Ganesha               one would raise you         -one would love you

child     be be if only some-       if only some     this never happened

Shankar Narayan received a 4Culture grant for Claiming Space, a project to lift the voices of writers of color, and his chapbook, Postcards From the New World, won the Paper Nautilus Debut Series prize. He is the winner of the 2017 Flyway Sweet Corn Poetry Prize, and has been a fellow at Kundiman and at Hugo House.

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Moss is a journal of writing from the Pacific Northwest. Published annually in print, Moss is dedicated to exploring the intersection of place and creative expression, while exposing the region’s outstanding writers to a broad audience of readers, critics, and publishers.

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