Lying on his back, eyelids shut,
Arm up and framing his head like a halo,
Pale wrist held up to the sky like an offering,
Large veins jumping out through his skin like an offering.
It starts with this.
It starts with this.
Boy hips. Not spread out
The way they were meant to,
Like something stunted around
Say 12, Fight or flight turned up too high
At the wrong time would make
A mean magician I mean clown,
Knobby knees and knocked together like
Narrow hips not spread out
The way they were meant to,
He left the keys in to keep the heat on and
She could
Drag her finger
Through the fog
She could
Write on the windows
In her mind
So strong that
She could
Do it lying down.
Laura McLaughlin's work has appeared in Haggard and Halloo, Clockwise Cat, Sammy and Beckett, and Honest Apple and Fourberous Orange. She currently resides in New Paltz, New York.