This is the Season of Our Shared Psychosis

frankie bb

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I'm wearing your father's military uniform
I'm loading the blanks and staring at a wall of sepia photographs
Two moths circle your closed eyes
You play with the five shell buttons of your blouse
You wanted to wear a corsage of fuchsia and Easter yellow
Wrapped in a black satin ribbon, but remembered your Mother
Laughing and saying, This is not that type of night
In your mind there is running makeup
It is late summer and the glasses stand like sentinels in the cabinet
You crush fortune cookies in your left hand and say
Let's perform the play
The one where you are a hollow Doctor in a black hat
And I am the sick woman in a satin bed
Saying I am full of possessed children
The night before I shoot at all the blue butter dishes
Nothing shatters but the sound is seven trumpets
 

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Index of Roses

frankie bb​​​

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All American Magic - once, in the glow of thin ice and no air
All Dressed Up - a navy Paquin day dress that I stole from Emily's collection
All the Rage - an alternating pattern of mirrors
Angel Face - plastic beads and colored threads
Lover's Vindication - I waited for you to come find me
Bee Heaven - I'm still stuck there——at seven being seventeen
Ball Gown Romantica - singing the 9/11 nursery rhymes
At Last, Arctic Blue - you're not forgiven for your feckless gifts

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