Say your blanket was a sheet of tin foil,

crisp, creased with dirt and cold.

Say you flossed your teeth with

the wings of a beetle, picked dirt

from your nails with your lips.

Say your guardian angel called you

a fucking whore and a brown cunt.

Say your iced tea came from the toilet.

Say your mother was sent forcibly

to the desert. Say your name was

a number. Say you weren’t quite familiar

with the English alphabet yet. Say there

were blood stains on your knees but you

couldn’t remember how you got them.

Say your stomach felt so empty

that you weren’t sure how long a day was

or what the color green looked like

or what sugar tasted like. Say you stayed

on your side of the fence, drank your

wine, watched the news, saying

and saying that this is wrong,

climbing into your bed and doing

it all again tomorrow.