Something that I wrote a few weeks ago and am still sort of working on. :P


I.

Jesse talks in front of 1,000 people
Every month
Making cash fast

Emily birthed a baby boy
Her picture:
Pale
Smiling
Hospitalized
The bewildered look
In the father’s eyes
As their son breathed

Dylan got an internship at CNN
Every morning on the train
He cried and shook
and dialed his mom

My social security number
Comes and goes
My clock only has four hours on it
Smushed together like seconds
I program important dates into my cell phone;
my brain can’t hold them anymore

II.

The bottom of the downstairs closet
The stone floor in the crawl space
Are covered with our first carpet
Like the real house is hiding
Under the new one

In the den
Boomerang plays a clip of the Flintstones
A marathon
I remember when it lasted for years

The backyard is so forgotten
It's new every time I step in it
My first backyard

In my head,
the old swing set creaks and groans,
the pool across the yard
still turns black every fall

III.

Every summer
Is stitched together
I spent years swimming