And Then

Often I’m afraid a missile an anvil a bank safe will descend

pow on my head smackdab on the bald spot right through the circle it’s said

the chakra the soul ascends and sets out on its rounds then my brain pan

soft pallet undoing all those dentists’ labor shuttling through my thorax

and torso stomach splashing last night’s wine and hummus

It happens in cities New York Chicago plummeting scaffolding and cornices

Or my sad-sack dumb fuck cousin last I saw him small boy

at the funeral just before that the deathbed making fish lips like our grandfather’s

dentureless gasping mouth then smacked in the face by my uncle

his father who saw me scowl then 21 two months out of prison breaking

and entering he claimed innocence of on the West side buying drugs

just smoke his friend in the car told police led down an alley and then