Life is Material

If you have skeletons in the closet, you may as well make them dance.
                                          ~ George Bernard Shaw

Brother found God
to be absent
everywhere
but in a decomposing
book of Poe’s
pearls and sister
wrestled stress
by taking eyes
from dolls
at Sears while
Mama drank and
Daddy hit
walls and hit
the road countless
times leaving
us under watchful
eyes of hallucinating
aunts and uncles
who crept late
through doors making
secrets of our
memories
exciting us
to treasure
hunts for vessels
clear or amber
always full
before sunset
never escaping
the stories of brothels
and traveling
musicians and now
I’m kindly counseled
to never display
the family portraits

beyond the black

and white still

frames within the borders

of the sanctioned

tribal album so they leave

me no choice

but to make

up even wilder

histories they will love
even less.