After Our Parents Get Divorced, Our Mother Buys an Ivy Stencil
In the small white bedroom
in the small white house
in the small white town of Ovid Michigan
on a rare weekend when Annette’s parents
drop her off we celebrate
they don’t want her hanging out with us
now that our mom is out every night
we sit on the floor in our bedroom
make doll clothes out of nylons
crop tops loincloths fringe
ink the male & female faces with eyeliner
paint their lips red
we search for dolls with unsmiling faces
cut off the top of their heads
glue on new hair throw the smiling faces in the trash
*
Let’s say you want to send Death a note
we ask some frogs they name their price
“We will fly it for some Cheerios”
we ask a mother who with tote & ice
cream marvels at a bucket sandcastle
“I will give them for some berries picked
from bushes at the forest’s edge” a passel
of yellow finches guard the fruits we ask
“dear finches may we have some fruit?” they form
a golden ring “well maybe if you bring
us spinach” where on earth will we find some?
biking to the store for greens
we see it’s dark too late at last we read
“our love will transform darkness like a seed …”
*
Our new house feels dank
& it’s a fifteen-minute drive from Annette
but at least it’s not a trailer
in our blue bedroom
after Annette’s mom makes her go home
we knock over CD cases
scream into a pillow
unleash a large bag of cotton balls
once our parents divorced
the dream home sold
for less than they paid
but our mother was ready
to cut her losses
she has to live
for herself
she has to live for
herself now
she is only thirty-three
without our father to yell at her
for wasting water our mother turns the sprinklers on
with abandon she grows the yard alive
with daffodils magnolias crabapples tulips
& roses coneflowers asters little green tomatoes
which she tends on Sundays
we paint our bedroom white & blue
Renaissance angels Madonna & Christ
fleshy cherubs our mother is afraid
of their ethereal faces cold eyes
in my room everything is heaven white & blue
then our mother paints the rest of the house gold
traces every wall with an icy stencil
paints faux-stained glass on the windows
hangs dozens of mirrors prints of mountains rivers
copper owls amethyst pillar candles blue glass
philodendrons aloe peace lilies Norfolk pine
