power
       I kept giving you.
Â
VI
       I see you as a boy
       at the community garden
       lacing tomato stems, your hands
       quick with twine. I watch
       the direct daydream
       of your stare, how
       your green eyes cycle
       light. You mind the squash curls
       before you race out the gate
       shoelaces wild on the pavement
       snap like jacks.
Â
VII
       You say you need
       time yet I keep
       coming back
       isnât my heart
       the dumbest kid
       in the class
       the dirty kid who
       no one wants
       to sit next to but he
       reaches out with gum
       and granola bars and
       they scratch into his desk
       with the needle
       from a math compass
       they ink âTHINK SOAPâ
       on the beige enamel of his locker
       he doesnât know
       anything better just
       days when Xander
       is absent and the room
       falls quiet he thinks
       in the moments
       when chalk scrapes
       a music of slate
       a sparkle of white
       dust itâs all radiant theater
       this escape might make
       him happy that the kids
       love him and he
       has good lunches
       and he swings for hours
       upside down from the monkey bars
       his head pendulous
       just above chipped-up
       wood as his shadow
       draws giant totems
       on the grass shrinking
       and growing shrinking
       and growing for hours
       he could do that
       as blood charges his head
       and he feels
       he might pass out
       from the wild joy
       he is a bell clanging
       as if to call everyone
       and shout this is all
       my body can do
       up this high
       you canât touch me
       as long as I keep pumping
       my skinny arms.
Â
VIII
       Chestnuts harden in spiky
       green husks, my brothers and I
       would walk the driveway
       in our socks, braved it
       under the chestnut tree
       and you give me
       a husk to hold
       suffer its unkindness.
Â
IX
       Itâs been five weeks
       since I left you and I leave
       the family brunch, pass
       the hidden plastic
       I kept giving you.
Â
VI
       I see you as a boy
       at the community garden
       lacing tomato stems, your hands
       quick with twine. I watch
       the direct daydream
       of your stare, how
       your green eyes cycle
       light. You mind the squash curls
       before you race out the gate
       shoelaces wild on the pavement
       snap like jacks.
Â
VII
       You say you need
       time yet I keep
       coming back
       isnât my heart
       the dumbest kid
       in the class
       the dirty kid who
       no one wants
       to sit next to but he
       reaches out with gum
       and granola bars and
       they scratch into his desk
       with the needle
       from a math compass
       they ink âTHINK SOAPâ
       on the beige enamel of his locker
       he doesnât know
       anything better just
       days when Xander
       is absent and the room
       falls quiet he thinks
       in the moments
       when chalk scrapes
       a music of slate
       a sparkle of white
       dust itâs all radiant theater
       this escape might make
       him happy that the kids
       love him and he
       has good lunches
       and he swings for hours
       upside down from the monkey bars
       his head pendulous
       just above chipped-up
       wood as his shadow
       draws giant totems
       on the grass shrinking
       and growing shrinking
       and growing for hours
       he could do that
       as blood charges his head
       and he feels
       he might pass out
       from the wild joy
       he is a bell clanging
       as if to call everyone
       and shout this is all
       my body can do
       up this high
       you canât touch me
       as long as I keep pumping
       my skinny arms.
Â
VIII
       Chestnuts harden in spiky
       green husks, my brothers and I
       would walk the driveway
       in our socks, braved it
       under the chestnut tree
       and you give me
       a husk to hold
       suffer its unkindness.
Â
IX
       Itâs been five weeks
       since I left you and I leave
       the family brunch, pass
       the hidden plastic
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