Me, Undone

She fussed over the spread all morning Patterned the blanket to match the doilies and cloth handkerchiefs  Polished the silver cheese tray and knives  She picked the perfect casserole dish Fresh green beans from the garden Ripe cherry tomatoes from the vine Edna closed the wicker basket  And fastened the bows tight  She then focused on her children   Zipping and buzzing around the house – the girls in polka dot cotton summer dresses and loose curls. Charlie, her husband – debuting the polo shirt Edna starched and ironed earlier in the day  It was 6:30 pm With the sun beginning to set, Edna corralled her family toward the door One last glance over   Everyone and everything in place  The family sat about down the road waving to neighbors as they passed by  Mr. Roberts watering his lawn  Mrs. Thelma carrying a crumbled brown bag of groceries into her home  When they arrived, Charlie lay the plaid blanket across the stretch of...

On this earth day here is an ode to all the things that didn’t go right To the vain ambitions  The ghastly blood-borne tantrums And the rage This is an ode to the fuck-ups. The fuck faces.  The petulant mouthbreathers   The uh…ohs… To the sloppy way I drank all the tequila  Stashed in that cupboard in New Mexico And drunk dailed my dead grandmother three times. Hoping. Hoping. Hoping.  And even emailed the Magician  The one who serrated my liver into forty-four  And to the Ring camera that caught discarnate limbs running out into a snowstorm at 3 am to dance.  This is an ode to the interview man that came on his Zoom Zoom  To tell me who I was  I wanted to release the middle bird And lace a necklace of profanities around his heart  But instead    I sat on my hands  As payment for being This Way  Very haughty  Very untamed.  This is an ode to the unanswered. To the unmanifested.  The ectop...