Toge ther, we would crawl under the cha inlink fence
and slide down th e h ard dirt slope to th e sand .
Benea th the pill ar of the bridge,
engraved with our favo rite graffiti-
"To hell with the pa rade,
let's go watch the elephants fu ck,"
we would ta lk about things
like the dream of how it feels to fl y,
when gravity di sappears
like a slow mo tion movie.
Our mo thers were sisters,
but tha t ni ght they locked me out of the room.
I cried becau se I wanted to settl e down
in the wa ter with you ,
in the tub with the claw feet,
to feel your skin slippery with soap
in tha t room tha t smelled of the pink oval
wired to th e in side of the toil et.
But th ey locked me out.
I was no longer a ll owed to touch you
or sleep in the same bed with you.
And when they fin all y to ld you
tha t your mo th er had gone insane
you ran away without me
to ea t oranges
sto len from the groves a long the ri ver.
