fourteen

He had only to close his eyes to see her in her muslin dress and her hat with the long silk ribbons, rocking her child's cage on the deck.

-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In the morning in his track suit

his voices cracks

when he talks about her gone.

Skin stacked and fallen,

chords pressed and opened pressed and opened.

A love, all knots in throat

growing and tangled thinking of her straight on

shrunken, but there

drinking skim milk with every meal.