it was ten years & two kids ago that never
go away happened; maybe it was ten years;
the cat got wet & w/ the sharp nails
clawed her face; dreaming ever since
of her faced washed w/ blood like tears
& tears & wet; drunk & wet she had on
a men's suit on the roof & fell over the side
like Cicely after moving across town &
serpentine across the tar beach like Natalie;
her hot Tennessee daddy didn't move
until the snake crawled up the stairs &
came back black as a tree & she can't
die like her heroes; he's dead now so simple;
a tree & the dead beneath it growing up into it
& coming out in her stinky feet's sticky fruit