my father winks and shares that his shadow has lately been in a dark place.  he means to throw a baseball but forgets.  he secretly hates any book that says simply how a man enters a woman.  when he shrugs his shoulders I imagine his arms are the knee socks my mother tugs then clips on the line.  this brings me to a painting my mother abandoned herself in because of thunder.  in the painting she is either swimming or for some other reason face down.  not in the painting she has her mother’s eyes with which she can see herself pregnant with her mother’s belly.  father winks again and says he speaks for my mother in telling me nothing I don’t already know.  a list of curse words I repeat underwater.