June 9th, 5:05 a.m

June 9th, 5: 05 a.m,

a hypnotized hiccup of an embryo was born

fertilized with salt, soil and prayer

effortlessly spiraling into an ethnic island fruit

held hostage like a foreigner

by my mother’s decadent cage.

With her knees to the heavens,

my skull, my abdomen and my fingers

dug their way out of the narrow forest

securing mosquito bites as a ritual

“birthmarks” they’ll call them

after my father sweeps away his charity work

with a chauvinistic broom

his legacy burning in the flames

of a needle in the flames of

my mother’s veins in the flames of

my mother.

Her skeleton, off its axis,

spinning pirouettes around her cherry obsession

her bee stings becoming commonplace,

like confused motorists on a busy highway

not enough space for the punctures

“we’ll wait for the roads to clear”

but seldom were they unoccupied

with feverish wounds drinking

glass as soup.

Time bent between clarity and fog

and the maid in her mind that made biscuits for breakfast

gave the script a revision and started cooking up spiders and ghosts

and higher powers took this gesture as a sign

that my residence was a broken vase that needed cleaning up

so, they boxed up the jagged pieces

and searched for a substitute of her mirror.

So, the headlines began

banners over frozen crosswalks,

spirited unions using berry bait for me

digging up fossils in a minefield for me

“choose this one”

and the theory of elusive love held true

until one day, a beam shot through thick layers of smoke

and chose me as a new seed to plant

to watch grow

under unfiltered chemistry.

They kept some of my broken pieces in the attic

used most of them to plant in their yard

in the perfect climate for wheat resisting artificial earth

for wheat always reaching for the horizon

with a whisper of hope coming from the windows of their cabin

with a banquet adorned in warmth just for me

and a promise of no bee stings on ghastly flesh

no ghoulish quandaries at midnight,

no cherry obsessions,

only a promise of familial fulfillment

and a promise

they’ve

fulfilled.