
that little girl under the table
scratching at knees as a mosquito might
pestering annoyingly enough;
but she’s not.
that little girl under the table
she’s not grown out of it
because she never left (even though she did)
Once in anger, once bereft,
grafting failure to achieve
something withered from the roots
Blood, not her blood, embraced her
brought her Polaroids of family blessed
as blissed as deeply remembered it to be
created in Tunes of resonant harmonies
The only home she wasn’t
that little girl under the table
who begged for scraps of affection
but the dogs eat faster, less furiously,
less needy than
that little girl under the table.