I remember holding a small, warm body
He smelled like innocence and comfort

I remember our sister telling me
he was in jail somewhere in the Midwest
for a series of burglaries

Gregor was three the year he fell out of the cherry tree
He broke both arms and they kept him in the hospital a week
In a room with a litle boy who'd lost an arm to a tractor
The paper printed a picture of the boy with one arm
feeding Gregor with a spoon

Gregor was five
the year Mother started screaming to her boyfriend
that the transformers outside the window
were going to explode
because demons were coming over the electric wires

I remember his small mute face in Dad's back room
owl eyes peeking out of neglected darkness
I remember his small pale face at Grandmother's house
but I can't remember the smell of innocence and comfort
any more


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Anitra's Family Poems
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