Pipe Dreams
When I was little I wanted to go go
now, I am a go go dancer.
When I am home
I take my lashes off and stick them on my fingers
batting them at the dog
I never wanted.
The dog I sometimes spray with Aqua Net
when he’s in the other room.
When he says he’s leaving for the week
I talk to my feet he talks with his hands
I smile and grind my teeth even harder
He should come watch me!
Watch every knot
in my spine curve to the strobe light ceiling
to an angry song
I merely sway to.
I come home and rub
my body along the kitchen counter and
I look like a clown.
I take my blue wig off and put it on the dog
I never wanted. I clunk around in high
heels till neighbors send me appeals tied to pigeons
the dog attacks.
I sit down sending smoke signals
By the time you get them
are small blood vessels
popping on the tip of your nose.
Foster Parent: Dan
Your family is where they are
because they didn’t welcome
Jesus Christ when he came knocking.
Without Him you’re rotting. Like
the inside of a broken refrigerator?
Yes, your family is a broken fridge
that’s why your house had very
weird vibes—like dark vibes.
Due to all those demons.
This is why your brother is wild.
Your brother is medicated. And remember
science isn’t the one who loves him,
I know all about the Devil. All about
temptation. I too had a run in with Satan
in the‘70s. See my tattoo. The flaming alien head?
Next to the dream catcher? I got those
in a biker gang TIME voted most dangerous
right under Hell’s Angels and before The Outlaws.
Sometimes If I am around florescent lights
I get flashbacks from when I was a loser.
I did crank and freebased with my buds.
Once I woke up in a tipi—
it wasn’t on a reservation.
Come on, get closer, hold my hand.
Things changed when I went to get my hair buzzed
and met Lisa. Cleaned up. Got baptized
in her folks’ backyard.
Now, God is good to us and
we love you, every ounce.
When we first saw you
Lisa and I were, like, enamored
despite your attitude
which I feel is the only thing Hispanic
about you.
I don’t understand why your family had
crucifixes on the wall.
Because in this house we think of Him as risen.
Not just hanging there bleeding.
What a gross out, right?
Lisa makes killer grouper and will show you
how to put on makeup. Lisa is devoted to pedicures—
red, pink, or hot pink?
She would love to bring you.
You can tag along in the Miata,
listen to some Buffett?
Now that you’re here
you’ll be able to do your work?
Get good grades? Lose the attitude?
I know you pray when you get scared
and that means something. It will just be me,
you, Lisa, Buffett, the Miata, and Jesus Christ Amen.
Malignancy
My mother strolled up to us and to be matter a fact
told my brother and I my father had gone into the woods to
die of cancer. This startled my brother who at the time was only half human.
He would do this thing where he faded in and out of the house.
My mother watched him begin to fade and chirped
“It’s true.” She told me she smelled the cancer on my father’s sweater.
I smelled my shirt and couldn’t smell a damn thing.
My brother, he started crying.
I decided to get all the forks left in the sink and fuse them together to reach
into my father and pull all the cancer out.
My father came home.
I screamed with my hands
I’m sorry I gave you cancer!
My father said he was just picking up cereal.
I turned to my mother
I watched her sip her coffee.
