the dogs clink their chains
at the end of the bed
and it comforts you,
and makes me crazy.
I lay with you
and a tear
slowly falls down my face
traces the lines of of me and then
plummets.
I watch you sleep
and want to shake you.
I want everyone to stop asking you if you are ok…
you are not.
We walk shaky like to the bathroom
and I think you are the baby bird
in “are you my mother”.
I want to pick you up..
I want to make you ok.
We cover you with more blankets than time
and it scares me.
We shuttle you to the poison
that will “fix” it and kill you
and i want a rewind.
I wake at night sweaty,
I hear her yelling my name.
My dream is still fresh in my mind
as I help you to bed..
I am wearing my black sheep costume
the one that is too small….
i am hiding in the corner, shaking and alone.
I am clutching 27 dollars in my hand
but feel so poor.
We watch old movies together
excessively loud
and you make up new words
that make us all laugh.
we sit hushed in hiding
and everyone talks way too much
about all that we fear,
and losing control.
Our words drop out of our mouths
in suffocating form
and we trade them around.
I sit in the backseat of your beloved
and wonder if you ever named her
and just how in the hell
we will get you into treatment today.
Mom drives
braver than she has ever been
wipes her tears
before they are visable
and tells me
this is all normal.
I want to corner your doctor
the one younger than my 34 years
i want to beg her
so many things
i want to have the conversations
that i play over and over in my head.
instead
i will just sit with you
buy a colander
rearrange the tupperware 33 times
rid the house of unseen lint.
i will take you for walks
push you up hills
i didn’t know i could climb.
i will listen to you
absorb each and every sound you make
and play you 8 tracks all night long.
i will let you call me Gordy and Bob
and cherish it even in my fear
i will make you chicken strips
and beg you
to please stay.
