Time Is a Mother

your tongue
to jump from
anywhere & make it
home
to be warm & full of
nothing oh
I kept my hope
-blue Vans on
this whole time
to distract you

your tongue
to jump from
anywhere & make it
home
to be warm & full of
nothing oh
I kept my hope
-blue Vans on
this whole time
to distract you
from my flat ass
did it work oh
my people my people
I thought
the fall would
kill me
but it only
made me real

That I recall every follicle in the failure the way they’ll remember god after religion: alone, impossible & good.

if you see
me then
I prayed
correctly

I ate the apple not because the man lied

when he said I was born of his rib

but that I wanted to fill myself with its hunger

for the ground, where the bones of my people

still dream of me.

It’s true I’m all talk & a French tuck

but so what. Like the wind, I ride

my own life. Neon light electric

in the wet part of roadkill

on the street where I cut my teeth

on the good sin. I want to

take care of our planet

because I need a beautiful

graveyard. It’s true I’m not a writer

but a faucet underwater. When the flood comes

I’ll raise my hand so they know

who to shoot.

Stand back, I’m a loser on a winning streak.

Nobody’s free without breaking open.

Because what I did with my one short beautiful life—

was lose it

on a winning streak.

childhood

is only a cage

that widens