Small Souls
Outside my window
there is a huge raccoon
who eats live chicks
by the light of the moon
he taunts me: mean
as he plucks them clean
(ice shards for teeth)
Those chicks are my babies
it makes me weep
to think how they suffered
I don’t want to talk about what I should have done
how I should have run outside
how I should have grabbed the gun
how I should have run to you
how I should have brought the gun
when you were suffering -
I was suffering too
Afraid of the toilet
the witch that lived in it
if I shit she would
stick me with a needle
so anal-retentive
I spent my young years holding the crap inside
then I grew chubby, white and blubbery
breasts swollen as rotten melons
Then I got raped,
eaten alive
by a human raccoon
(ice shards for teeth)
by the light of a
horrid post-dawn moon
I don’t like what you’re doing to me -
I whimpered
just a 16 year old virgin
on a downhill slide
to last a lifetime
Who knew I would miss all those years I shit my pants -
those were the easy ones
hell, those were the good times
cuz years get easy and flow together when the difficulty of life
courses itself in and out of your eras
when you spend it wishing for difference
for the old days — the gentle ones
not quite as hard to bear
Now all I hope for
is to live long enough
to help my children have good lives
it doesn’t matter that I want to die
it’s no longer about me
it’s about the young children
who are scared to go to the bathroom
who are scared of the dark
who are scared of angry parents
that yell and they cower like
storm ravaged sunflowers
I am I am
the evil ogre that should get locked up
but who then would stroke
their ochre cheeks of suede
at night as they risk
the closing of their eyes
and lay there — small souls exposed
to the evil teeth of the night,
I whimper
Goodnight little ones.
Momma’s here, sleep tight.
