That

That

Doors open and close

The sound of children’s arrogant laughter and whimsy fills the house again

Our room opens with her sunshine

Gloomed by a cloudy day and the experience that unfolds from her lips

She smiles

“I just want to let you know, you are so much better than

That”

Zooms open and close

The conversations already going on about the children’s desperate pleas

I don’t want mommy to smoke

Well then stop making mommy so stressed out that she has to smoke

Like rolled up toilet paper

I remember

Hiding in trash cans in the apartment trash bin smelling like

That

Jobs open and close

The faint praise of “you are definitely rehireable” even though my salary is discontinued

Effective immediately

School bells ringing that it’s time to take your things and leave and go home and don’t

Even think

About coming back

Like trash

Blowing across an interstate we travelled to get away from

That

Comparisons open and close

That long told story about thieves of joy and treasures of life that mean more

Than money can

But then everything costs the money and the love and the happiness

That all the Thats can bring

Laying flat palms

Above the place where heaven enters proper

Let me sin

Pushing and stretching the boundaries of

That

Doors open and close

About the building and the artist who ducked behind printed backs

Social cues