My parents buy me a new twin mattress when I am too old for my toddler’s bed with the guard rail but too young to remember my actual age, and, growing up eating stale bread when it was what we had, that is the bed I sleep on until the morning I fly across the country to attempt to take up space somewhere else. My roommates grow up differently…

All summer long, we played checkers out on your front porch. The discs clinked under our fingertips, which shone with grease from the potato chips we licked but would not eat. This was our habit: to pop a chip under our tongues and lave the brittle flake, swallowing only the aftertaste of salt and sour cream. Earlier, you had dumped sugar-free…

Save your congratulations and your flowers My baby is sunbathing on the moon And with the eternal blue light she glows In her clear house, with shutters Save your kind regards, and visits With doughnuts and kisses Save your little nothings that amount to nothing Save it save it Purple green and christened blue The flowers dug deep from…