God and Mother
went the same way.

     *      *      *

What’s a person to us
but a contortion
of pressure ridges
palpable
long after she is gone?

     *      *      *

A thin old man in blue jeans,
back arched, grimaces
at the freezer compartment.

     *      *      *

Lying in the tub,
I'm telling them—

the missing persons—

that a discrepancy
is a pea

and I am a Princess.