My Mother’s Skull is Opened the First Time
post-surgery scan
shows inflammation
a gray sea around
a dark emptiness
hole where tumor lodged
size of a child’s fist
shoving out frontal
lobe tissue where lives
personality
higher level cog-
nitive functioning
no way to excise
pathology says
tentacles return
no matter standard
of care or candles
lit at Saint Jude’s shrine
my mother’s devout
she touches her beads
still takes the wafer
wears lipstick with her
headband of staples
Bird Watching
The day after my mother died,
I went to find the Indigo Buntings
and I’m sure one lit
in the branches ahead
but I suck at binoculars.
Over here my mother said.
She was a crow.
Figure out how to see me.
Then she cawed four times,
her eyes drops of ink,
her feathers black and flat
like what? Knives? A night lake?
Who gives a shit.
I don’t…
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