kripplebush

being the other kids
who were on vacation when everyone packed up the house
and moved to kerhonkson
we had to do the yardwork to make up for it

our heads were itchy from the lice we'd caught
from a b&b in cape cod

i mowed right over a hornet's nest
and got my legs covered in stings
but i did not cry

nor on my ninth birthday when i was reborn at quarter past midnight
in the tent we slept in all summer
smashing down the walls in our house with sledge hammers
and walls in other houses too