Young Stuff...

Dirty ground, mud that captures your shoes when you step in it, Argentina.
Don't let the dogs scare you, they travel in packs to stay safe. Smoke more, move less, insides stay inside and the earth stays out. I've never seen the sunset here.



Boy
You rip the skin off your fingers too. IT hurts when the skin breaks but sometimes, you like to see blood. What makes the two of us so angry at ourselves that we peal away layers of our own skin as quickly as we smoke our 20 cigarettes a day? Your mother calls you to ask how your thumbs are, she's worried you've finally gone too far and this time you have taken the fingertips off. I laugh as you imitate her. I think of my own mother who shook her head and looked down at the floor when she saw the band aids I used to cover up the craters and blood soaked spots on my own thumb, ring, middle, pinkie, all fingers. I think, only now do I realize that she was just tired of seeing my raw, pink skin.

Lolipop
You gave me this lollipop. I had wanted it all week but never had enough money. Then, without saying anything at all you pulled an orange pop right out of your pocket. And I was so excited,
that I forgot to say thank you!


"Mother"
Mother. I haven't called you 'mama' yet because the word stays stuck on my tongue like melted ice. I think you like it better that way anyway, though. You feel younger, feel like a big sister instead. And the truth is you are young. Younger than my father and more beautiful too. I wonder, mother, if anyone tells you how beautiful you are? If they did, you'd probably just laugh and show them your rotten teeth. But mama, rotten teeth can be beautiful too.

More Teeth
It's through the blackness of your gums that I first saw kindness in imperfection. In the beginning, your teeth scared me. They made me careful to put my toothbrush on the far side of the bathroom so our grime couldn't meet. In the beginning, when you spoke to me, I didn't hear a word you said.

As time went on I noticed other things. Things like your ways of showing affection, how you kept your figure and how you always had food on the table for all those other hungry mouths.