cotton picking

Come sit with me in my sunshine Warm you through to nothing Banyan tree in grandmas front yard Red cheeked over-napping in the sun, scolded. Apple tree in the backyard "Girl, go climb and fetch me a switch and face your Grandpas room" spray clean these cages, pull the black plastic tight "keeps out the weeds" shaking the wire along the fence, soda can rattle, Filled with pennies to scare away the birds "Keep your cotton pickin hands off that" walnut credenza and office supplies, my parents drinking beer and smoking, sitting in the green room drawing all my world, breyer horses with speckles and straight manes, "that doesn't look like a horse" zebras with soft manes, braids...grocery store coloring contests and visiting the canned food warehouse. Individual fruit pies. Red jelly. The cherry convertible mustang, green light of the carport on white vinyl. Wasp nest behind the shed, dim and din, I stepped barefoot. "Your stupid earned every sting."