I was trying to describe you to someone

How you grew out of canned macaroni

And spread in the damp like a fungus

How you are built like a deck of cards

Out of slices of silence

And run away from voices.

The way you glow under fluorescents

And shy away from the sun

They way you were born, like a blackhead being squeezed

Or how your feet leave grease stains on stone.


I was trying to describe you to someone

The way your fingers are lodged in my brain

Your house of wrappers and damp blankets

How every morning you pin me down

Try to keep me from going to school

How every day I kill you

Filling the air with your spores for tomorrow.


I was trying to describe you to someone

How you play checkers with me and chuckle

And always let me win.

The way you always meet me at the door

Singing me to sleep.