You’ve done it again
The year that we’re ten
Apartment like a graveyard

Dinner table in the backyard
Hand on my face——
Hand to my face in the classroom

You bewitch and christen in the same breath,
DNA doesn’t matter
Moments between, I heave

And I grieve for the girl you might have been
Coming naturally to you,
The marble freeze slides up my knees

Ten steps, our years to the table
And I can’t help but shiver underneath your father’s gaze
And when they found him——

And when you found him,
Were you relieved?
The gray dots to green slid up on my screen

And what was at first a smile
Impulsory and right
Became a gasp

Reactive and right
I am here for you
50 dollar bills floated in the toilet as I heaved

A sludge-mud moves down your face,
Covering bloodshot eyes
And chapped lips

You set the table night after night
I never did, I never tried to
You tell me you set the table

And what do I make of that,
But transfer it to a point-toe friend,
Subway bound,

Grandmothers pull us away as I didn’t know better?
I sat in your classroom,
The chalkboard screeching 

As you taught me 
Ambition, value, and anger,
No one pointed their fingers,

We were ten.