death a gift a package
a slit in the gowned night a slayer
of well water curdling beneath the cross
of your eyes as you fell and fell again
she’s killing me are the last words I hear you speak
mother the she who usher death with grin
on the hellmouth where slayers are blood on the carpet
and she’s exorcised the life from those
who mistook her grooming for love
they now heads on a string that she plucks to bobble
she used to push me too
tell me I was being dramatic for falling
that I did it to myself
spit in my face for good measure
mother noose pulled tight like a trigger
a metaphor cocktail shaken like your mind
when I know she threatened you in that gnarled voice
rooted deep in the throat as if spoken through
a carburetor when you didn’t obey
not always a voice sometimes just a growl
not vampiric with a hungry tongue
but a sharked snarl something that wants to eat you whole
I’m bleeding out of my ears!
a shriek so piercing you had to hold the phone away
as you cried
and told me to do want she wanted
so that she didn’t end up in the hospital
mother cry woolf
if mother don’t get
what mother wants
even if what mother wants
is your body your freedom your pulse
once given into I could almost hear
the smile hook onto her face
thank you, enjoy your day
did you really think we live in a magical world
where ears stop bleeding when people get what they want
or was it not a coincidence that you loved the movie gaslight
that you thought it was audrey hepburn’s greatest role
that this was one of the first movies you watched
with my wife when she first started visiting the house