Wallace Rd

The children in the neighborhood

Rarely see each other. They are

Picked up at the buses

And they play inside. In the pond, some of the fish

Have died – it was too hot. 3204 Wallace Rd watches

Their white, swollen bodies bob  listlessly

In the green water

Because his grandmother has forgotten his name.

He still reminds her but soon he will stop. 3211 watches him

Watch the fish and imagines taking him a folding chair but she doesn’t.

She hates death and it doesn’t grow on you

Like Carole King does –

It’s ugly and it’s never not ugly. She will go

To school tomorrow with new, unwelcome realities:

Her parents naked,

Too loud,

And a boy who is not quite young enough anymore

To roll with the punches.