Care Where Your Children Are

Mead
62 So. Allen #3
Albany, NY 12208
HYPERLINK mailto:Mead815@yahoo.com mead815@yahoo.com
123soho.com/member/mead

Do You Care Where Your Children Are?

4 a.m. &; there' s a kid in the kitchen
With a knife prying drawers.
He's already slit screens, jimmied
The bolt, searched &; found
Zip.
Sounding calm comes from surprise,
From grogginess, from knowing
He lived next door (or could have)
Forget whatdoyouwantI'llcallthecops,
Ask
Are you hungry.

Of course. That's the point.
Realized harm's starved the streets
To shut doors, lean keyholes &; small
Shiny specks that may be tickets, cash, trade.

Pour milk. Read that gleam in his eyes,
The gleam of an anorexic with a secret fetish.
Your eyes must seem reasonable, clear,
No mirage, only safe, almost in league,
A home-base for a minute, for an hour,
However long it may take
To carry the wildness in him

Away from the drag.
Suppose his parents tried that route &; failed.
Suppose he hasn't any. Suppose you make
Another sandwich

&; slice it with the knife