Two days
from now
you won’t remember
how I laid you down
delirious,
my six-year-old
daughter
swooning

spoonfuls
of purple
medicine
sickly sweet

your body burning
up beneath
pink sheets
you kicked
to the foot
of the bed

I swear
you were
dreaming
of mermaids
saddled on pink dolphins
like bejeweled rodeo stars
mermaids
swimming closer
mermaids
with long yellow hair
bucking waves—
sea girls with
one hand raised
in salty air,
orbiting
in circles
overhead,
wee galaxies
of ocean mist,
droplets
of sweat
on your lips.

At dawn
your fever
broke with
the sweetness
of candy glass
mason jars;
fireflies
escaping
as embers,
a dimming
delirium
of stars.

Two days
from now
you won’t remember
how I came to you
in the middle
of the night
when you cried
out for me,
your voice
unfamiliar—
a song sung
by a small girl
burning up
beneath
the sea.

We hinge reality on people
We hinge reality on the church steeple
All that begins will end
But the starting line is in your head
We call reality free
We call reality me
Take a seat under you favorite tree
And you might come to find what those words mean

At seven ,
I rode a bicycle
with over inflated tires
that burst in the dark
thumping hard the side
of the house
scaring us all

At eleven ,
I went to three
different elementaries
in two states ,
one fall ,
two winter ,
three spring

When thirteen ,
I had a home
with no roof
or walls and slept
under the wiles of
mother moon

Then at fourteen ,
at fifteen ,
and sixteen ,
I went to high school
in a house made
out of cards
The jokers ran wild

At seventeen ,
I moved on
moved out
and like an orphan
I was sponsored
without love
as a rock singing
"I Am A Rock"

" 'I have my books
   And my poetry to protect me
   I am shielded in my armor
   Hiding in my room
   Safe within my womb
   I touch no one and no one touches me
   I am a rock
   I am an island

   And a rock feels no pain
   And a rock never cries ' "