It's very special to me

eggnog drunk and bleeding from my thumb

on Christmas Eve 

I was not sure how to hold

people’s clenched fists 

and tight throats

it had something to do 

with relaxing the criss crossed 

straps of muscle in my back

and untying the ribbon 

around my neck

the dog that bit me was scared

and I took the wounding off the cuff

shook it away like water on a beast

just out of the lake 

leaving hoof prints in a vibrational arc

I let my mom buy me Neosporin 

and I gripped a bag of ice

we watched the Jeff Buckley documentary

which ends with “it’s very special to me that you are a person that a child came from…anybody can be famous Mary

but it takes a real spirit hear me it takes a real spirit to raise a

kid. I love you. I love you! i love you I love you!

I love you. I love you.”