.

mom tells me that the reason dad
doesn’t tell me he loves me as often
Is because I don’t need it as much
as zak

.

I still wonder, all these years later,
if I am bound to the same rules, the
same divine dream my mother had all
those years ago—
Will I  also be tied into a loveless marriage?
A business proposition ? A contract
in shreds, lining the walls
another reverie I’ve shifted into
the floor planks swollen with stale bath water
a decrepit house falling apart
Around me, asleep in
a place where the lights don’t come on


mom tells me

It’s because I  don’t need it as much

.