My friends wonder:
why water down the milk?
make it last longer & longer until it’s just
white ghosts, stretched thin.
why not just buy more? they ask,
bright as pennies in a jar-
as if my bones aren’t tired from scraping
double-bagged escapes on half a paycheck,
saving up for something that doesn’t have a name,
but a kiss full of teeth.
Once- a fairy, lost, coughing stardust-
whispered in my mask, hey
if you make a ring of Tito’s and step through,
quick, before the dawn catches on your breath
I could save you,
save us both.
take us back to somewhere
& nowhere at all
where, I asked, the wish burning
through my pockets, through my mind
which home? for there were many.
No, baby, she gasped, wings crumbling to ash
not that home-
all the way back.
to the first day,
where mornings were built
from stardust & glories,
where endings begin again,
where nothing
becomes everything
you ever wanted
alright, I whispered,
maybe this time I’ll go home.
Maybe this time I’ll let go of
the milk, the money, the ring of flesh
just step through,
the circle closing tight,
nothing but mouthwash & air,
nothing but nothing
& there,
finally,
maybe I’ll be whole,
or nothing at all
which is the same thing, really.
Another star-dusted fairy
caught in the flame.