he slept in my bed after i filled his body with
insects & panic & grandfather sewn seeds
i was useless inside him; trade organs for oceans
is there a vaccine for this?
to clean out all the unborn kids
(a whole graveyard here in this bed)
he broke me good where the landlord left scars
emptied all the bedrooms to reclaim the stretchmarks
we were to our throats in grass!
we tore down the treehouses!
and our brothers were kindling for the lovesongs that we couldn't sing
because we drowned all our songs in the bathtub
(you could hear them way up in the rafters)
and the preachers sleeping in the attic stole them all for scriptures
we sing nothing, now; our mothers ask us how
we pray with the lights out for songs to fill our mouths