Are Topeka dreams the lullaby of lurve?

1.

A portmanteau of learning curve.
Hit me with your best downvotes.
I’ve been eleven and in lurve
and I know what the word denotes.

The way a larva spells its name,
knowing the preferred nomenclature
is nymph. Cicadas have no shame.
Thanks, nature,

for the new neighbors whose lives are porn,
drone metal and unlicensed flying.
Mine would be too if I’d been born
seventeen and dying.

The maples were so loud this year
Topeka had to sit up streaming
Netflix because it couldn’t hear
itself dreaming.

2.

Lullabier, lullabier,
univocal as a choir,
tell me this about the bough:
if you do or don’t allow
that its object is to break,
how long will it wait to make
you a prophet or a liar,
lullabier, lullabier?

Eric McHenry is an American poet.

Russell Bennetts co-founded Queen Mob's Teahouse in 2014.