TODAY SHE IS TWENTY-ONE

you drew in from the wrong side

huffing & puffing to collapse

my ribcage & the hollow tones

of the dulcimer ache reward

the elder was no help at all

bent on saddest resignation

that made fun of my efforts

like silence on a battlefield

your tantrums began

where she did trip

two decades earlier

cleaning the stain of tie-dye

from the clever books

she held insecurely

and now we're here

now we're there

handcuffed to the idea

that if I wanted you

I'd simply kidnap you

a story for beer & chips

no steps forward

no steps back

stuck inside a room

with underworked dream-catchers

with nothing to grasp at

but soft pants in the only union

we could command

underworked limbs

underworked tongues

brains that couldn't feed themselves

crucified pride introduced us to

the degrees of pity in love

but left us begging for alms

from strange tenants & twins

your single bed

your single notion

your single act

not planned

as eyes roll, reverse

in no distinction of life

fingerprints on a babe's backside

they all shudder to talk sense

but I rise in anger to accuse

and cry, 'murder!'

at the death & extension

of a child's soul

twenty-one years ago 

today