I had no choice in that scene of light and shadows
inside windows of black vines and faded flags
in a distance from the sounds of the party I thought of you and my cheeks were wet
I didn’t know if it was joy it felt like pain
regret or memory or the other way around your skin remembered a place I had forgotten
a bobble head bull dog in the entrance of her house
the smell of rotting fruit in cages around her head
in the middle hung her bed
in the middle of the song screams
in the back the main event
the two treasures of endangerment
the last king and queen of their kind
I walked up to their rusty palace and reached my small fingers between the bars
she left them fleshy skins of mango and papaw while they sat above it all chewing holes in their robes of feathers
I rocked my head up and down in the way I was told meant love
but they were too far gone
I wished to set them free and she said they won’t survive
they don’t remember how to fly
so i left them there standing still
in their molting glory.