It claws
it doesn’t begin with an itch
a single hurt
a pointed branch
me and my fingertips
what rings for only forty-two years
would one need a magnifying glass to see the few years I spent
in a big city
I wasn’t really all that bad was I?
you
want
to
know
I would have always ended up here
know that I have been through some things
before you call before you tell me about your bad day
it isn’t enough to complain about your body
and how it maybe doesn’t listen
or what tiny hurt a sliver in the hand
does to me
do you know months before my husband’s birthday
I picked out a gift
thinking I may not be here to see him open it
do you wanna hear how I thought this will make him smilie this will make him think about me and not cry
a fucking t-shirt
faded in the sun from where it sat neatly folded
I couldn’t look at it
I made a deal
with the clouds
that I’m making with you when you say
you are praying for me
it’s for you and not me and it’s ok
to be running up that road
be running up that hill
be running up that building say only if I could oh
I’d put a universe in my elbow and call it
sugar
magnet
and rain
my chocolate milk went numb
I leave my Christmas lights up all year because I can like water
from a spring in Northern Michigan
is still the coolest and best thing
I have ever tasted