my taxes are stacked
with unrelated papers
that need to be gone through
and thrown out Aches and pains
placed gently under psoriatic arthritis
misspelled words
under daddy hit me
with a belt
when he taught me to spell
or in the larger family violence folder
sagging skin black spots thinning hair
under over 70 wild fires
raising sea levels the plague
are kept with imminent danger
on their own self
for easy access
my brother’s angry
unpublished editorials
under mother
my dog Drizzle under labradoodle
Windy Bell under parrot screeching
no I won’t kill the parrot
you refuse to be shoved
into a filing cabinet
loss
sits alone on an empty shelf
Image Credit: Bridget Tichenor, Chimerical Parrots (1972)
