Mama made me stay home
because I forgot the laundry,
the third time this week.
“Get your mind here” Mama said
because she knew it was with you.
My school skirt was unironed
and pupils glazed over
and you laughed in the hallway
because you knew.
I’m nervous.
I cannot
process
procure
articulate
the words in the air.
See that’s the thing with it,
with feelings -
as long as you’ve got them,
how can you be trusted?
But when HE is marked absent
because he forgot to mow the lawn,
and his oxford buttondown
looks more like the waves in Nazare
I chuckle softly
and think to myself
“baby, thank God it’s you this time”