We kinda wish the lullabies our parents sang to us in our youth were more like “Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,” Ally Covino‘s sweetly offbeat poem from our Winter 2016 issue.

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DOTTY’S GONNA BUY YOU a mockingbird that guts with song.
And if that mockingbird don’t sing, my furnitures
Are bleeding. Dotty’s gonna buy you a diamond ring,
But I am in need of new fingers famished for something more
Than slothing. And if that Diamond ring turns brass, all too
Green, Dotty’s gonna buy you a looking glass. I am sick
Of bartering and sideshows, and if that looking glass
Gets broke, Dotty’s gonna buy you a billy goat. But, I am allergic
To Bovidae and melancholia and if that billy goat won’t pull,
I am fucked. Dotty’s gonna buy you a cart and bull, gonna buy
You a dog named Boozer, and if that dog named Boozer
Won’t stop barking, Dotty’s gonna impound him, buy you
A horse and cart and if that horse and cart fall down,
You’ll still be the sweetest little bastard in town.

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ALLY COVINO is an MFA candidate in the New Writer’s Project. She is originally from San Francisco and misses the fog.