you were warned, that your greedy digging,
your clawing fingers sinking into the earth, was just
like shooting up

Content Warning: Abuse, Sexual Assault.

Even you,
dull as you feel,
emit a faint shine.

before the nights we spent enameling / this reflection in my eye, my mother / danced on a fire escape / limned by black fire, and you / glowed bright with the silhouette of a camera.

First you have a fist,
the same size as the heart, which
came before.

my people die like a poisson process. i listen to the rain count bodies
while the thunder weeps with me.