Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Judges 12: In Writing

All day they watch with gimlet eyes

measure every atom of cake

clock the syllables of speech.


Her piece was bigger!

I should get two.

Why did his have chocolate?

every crumb filed and accounted for.


I didn’t get pita, so I should

get for lunch and they shouldn’t

get any –the not-get

more important than the get. 


My Imma, the baby smiles

with gleaming milkteeth

shoving his sister off my chest.


I love you into the shark's mouth

and all the way up to the sky, she says

heart against my heart


as her leg draws back

to kick her brother–

behind every offering, the buried dagger.


Why does your face fall? 

God asks Cain.

Whose picture do you like better?


Winter swallows the sun early

I want to go home, 

my daughter whines


but every home is a warzone’

about to detonate from within.


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