she began to drool
and removed
her shirt.  she was still
growling
when her face
returned.

I was nightmarishly poor.

     in her thirteenth year, she met her double.  in her fourteenth
she recovered
from no more
than two
illnesses.

she assured her acquired stutter
it was just
an old
friend
of god’s
come to collect
a hair
sample.

fragile
as in
opaque, she leapt
from a balcony
over which
I’d pretended
to flick
cigarettes.    

I ate dry cereal in the dark and thought of spiders.  she called me ****.  I called her toes
air quotes.

she was involved
as a passenger
in a car
accident
on three
consecutive
days.

she predicted herself
saying

the world isn’t after me
I am

after which

I couldn’t
win a fish
that would die.