this house
is a disaster
in front
of the children.

when an egg breaks
we’re poor enough
to count it
before it’s hatched.

I tell my sons
to never
put a tree frog
on an escalator
at the mall

and to avoid
taking gum
from my mouth
while I’m awake.

I tell my daughter nothing.
she believes her arms
professionally broken.

my mother was the last
to be
put to sleep
in the nearby hospital
of the mind.

I couldn’t drag me away.