chasm of a patriarch

---

how many languages do you speak? when I was seven I pushed open

the emergency door in TJ Maxx.

let the alarm blare like watching

a quarter roll away.

my family:

            a prickly

amoeba.

the shape of how we survived

each other.

                         I wonder about western

psychology I told my therapist.

                         the quarter spins before collapse.

roles shift in the triangle of victim,

persecutor & rescuer she says.                               rock

paper            scissors.                                             chasm of a patriarch.

victory by default.                                                  I stare at the undertow.

look at the stars and wonder                                  how the unforgivable became sky.

goodbye, goodbye nostalgia.                                  my thin membrane tears

when I envelop you.