by Alexis Romano
my mother is a sad woman.
i want to yell for her || yell for her || to scream out to my father in the cold.
i want her to catch the crab! catch him! catch the cancer! kill the crab!
but she doesn’t because she loves
loves the meek
loves the aged
and by God, her mouth is open like a child in sleep.
yesterday, i knew nothing
about my mother,
but knew she was a child
always flapping
like a captured bird, letting it all fly
and Mother, you are brave.
catch, kill the Moonchild crab. you may eat the shell too.
death does not alarm me. i do not love the meek. i do not love the aged.
i rise
like the dead.
my mother aches.
beware. i am her daughter.
her name is Alexis my mother speaks
and never yells, but i do ||
i yell and
scream out
don’t tell me what to do
i die in an hour
i know what i want
let the crab rot.
eat me to death, my God,
for the cold comes in like a thousand orgasms
and I am no child. my mother is
the child: bent, bent like a wing
