1.
The fish are belly up in the river now and the corn grows like hay. That’s why Daddy had to leave. Heading West, where a Man can be new again. Brother and I asked to go with him. Mother helped him pack, Grandfather sat in his chair watching. Grandfather’s tongue is a hollowed out wasp nest, Brother said, no bite left. We could feed him anything and he wouldn’t taste the difference. But Grandfather still tried to talk them back together, In the South we would, Daddy’s at the door, tipping his hat off to us Up North we have to,
2. For Father
The night you left, Mother started sleeping with her bible under her pillow and a gun on your side of the bed. While Brother and I were at school, Mother saw a ghost fly down the stairs and into the basement. She told her white friend about it, how after she saw it, she opened all of the windows and prayed through the house. Spread holy oil over every doorway like
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Then I spit it back up. She started screaming about how it was her song, but they weren’t singing for her. The Spice Girls came Amos’ radio and into my throat so they could sing for me. I know what they mean by a zigahzigah, no child of mine needs to know about a zigahzigah. Mother hated them the second she heard them. She came outside, pulled me into the house and took the music with her.
When Sister fell from the tree, she was stiff. Back and legs locked tight against her arms. I always thought that when people fell, it would be like a feather floating up and back and down against the wind. The air not knowing where to take them. But, it knew exactly where it wanted to take her and it was down. When she landed, I could hear her neck move away from her head and shoulders. It was a cree when she slid, cran when her head bounced up from the gravel, chung when it pushed back down. It was a sound that doesn’t have a name. When Sister fell from the tree, God wanted to take Sister back