Father's Hands
Susan Yount
bedtime
shines like catfish reeks
touch
fingernails crawfish crust
stapled skin your scar bare and it hardened
one pink strip from throat to memory dreams scrape me
oilcans mudbug nails handprints
bruised breast
sister red faced wailing, red hair mop
she still won't tell me what you did to her
blood shoved
the time I whined not to cut wood alone
mother slaps faces for laziness
harsh weather you plowed nevertheless
it was always worse
two finger yeast infection fist fuck, the counselor
stared at me like she
couldn't believe me (me at sixteen)
mother at my side
or a foster family
thought that'd be fine (the foster family)
new life
money
all this
was costing
greased gasoline
knuckles lips
nothing changed
bedtime
shines like catfish reeks
touch
fingernails crawfish crust
stapled skin your scar bare and it hardened
one pink strip from throat to memory dreams scrape me
oilcans mudbug nails handprints
bruised breast
sister red faced wailing, red hair mop
she still won't tell me what you did to her
blood shoved
the time I whined not to cut wood alone
mother slaps faces for laziness
harsh weather you plowed nevertheless
it was always worse
two finger yeast infection fist fuck, the counselor
stared at me like she
couldn't believe me (me at sixteen)
mother at my side
or a foster family
thought that'd be fine (the foster family)
new life
money
all this
was costing
greased gasoline
knuckles lips
nothing changed