sister has her tail
brother
his paints…
satan’s baby can clap underwater
my tongue wanting no part of my brain
I’d launch
a dead bird
from a seesaw
and take
note
the short legs
of exodus
bored as a slaughterhouse
crow / angel
on a skateboard
the bear and the elephant
the last
believers
in the integrity
of suicide’s
memory
/ nothing speaks
to a brother’s
fascination
with stones
/ for light
bend it backward
the baby’s
thumb
a woman places my hand in the stomach of god
as fire
the stickman’s
barber
betrays
my hair
surely the boy should have seen by now his father hit a man. a girl walk in on a television. a bite mark on a baseball. a bug-eyed nurse. a dog on two legs. a god on four. a scarecrow on a diving board. himself as a baby. the band-aid
my dream’s
blindfold.
the sisters compare how many months they’ve stayed pregnant
/ nearby,
a boy
believes
he’s guessed
from no more
than the image
of a swollen
fish
which alien
showed interest
in our
despair /
(I am looking for a place to whip my brother that is not a bathroom)
/ my father
he is waiting
for the price
to come down
on a thing
he says
will prove
theft
has no mother
and forgiveness
no god / as a dentist
dreams
it’s all
in the legs
I offer my shoulder to the mouth of little baby angel-bait. my wife is touching up the secret room we’ve rented for a reptile to display its sadness. I am worried my son sees no point in knowing whether or not a slug heavy enough to snap a mousetrap has died. to be clear, a sound twice as long as my ears made its way to god in the photo god is using.
