Backyard
Our backyard was big
I walked it with a styrofoam sword
Surely among the sweet smelling burdock and queen Anne’s lace and trees
I could find
A door,
A set of stairs
Magic beans or
A giving tree
I see in a little clearing
A squat plant bristles leaves and thick purple stems
Blooms with nothing around
an empty spiral faerie circle
Should I dig beneath it
Find
The little brown box that man
Smiling
Made for me
“I’ll leave it here. Our boy will find it” he whispers and runs his calloused hands over designs he carved
Looping intricate
I had seen before
Where?
Something i could bring inside
And the cast down eyes would lift and light
“You did it! This what we needed! Our sweet boy!”
Kisses and embraces like I saw on tv
Clean the dirty floors smeared with food and shit
Then join hands
With the starving dogs and those weird cats
With the extra stumpy legs
open sores and milky eyes
gather round
Dancing spiral faerie circle
And sing a little song to me
Like Snow White