New poem. I don't like the line And I know you know that I am jealous because that is pretty much implied in the poem. Mikey, my editor, agreed with me. The first stanza needs noodling because it needs to be apparent that she goes outside and also the chronology is off. But I digress.

I am thinking of this quote at the moment from an Iraqi soldier: “We are all waiting for death, like the moon waiting for sunset.”





Black Temper

Upside down your hair swings like a curtain

You remove yourself from us at the dinner table

And claim the tree as kin,

feet firmly wrapped around the branch like it was your lover

Our father, moon eyed and teeth flashing

burns you from inside the house, his anger melts

Away the walls and he wants you,

I can see

He never wanted me that hungry

And I know you know that I am jealous

I can’t understand your face eyes like black

Temper, cold and coyly not meeting his gaze

Staring off at something I cannot see

I know you could drop

Down monkey like and pick up a stone and

Shatter his head at the trunk

Watch blood feed the roots

I heard you say motherfucker once and hide behind the smaller

Tree next to the mailbox. Now you just swing and I can hear

You inhale the world around us, slowly, as it pales in front of my eyes.