Necessarily

She’s got a hundred & two temperature, delivery room nurses said. You’re

gonna live, though — long enough to know you’re going

to go as quickly as you came, gonna make your mother swear by you, going to

shake your Bible with red-tipped nails before you vanish

into Chicago South Side skies that bleed — not like watercolor, not like a wound, not

like a fat, bitten plum — not necessarily. No, not necessarily.

Nothing that precious or predictable. Speak nicely to others & they will nicely

speak to you, your mother said. No, not so, you said fairly

close to the end. No time to wait for mother’s ride home or for saviors, coming soon.