Pox

Delivery flat,

hair too long,

hides the scruff.

Perfected the art

of making people

speak to me

child's talk

so I can be a pox

of a visit

and visitors, pox.

I'm so wild.

Ever

You ever want something so badly

You would kill to have it

and sometimes you think you

actually own it

(just sits in your sweater drawer)

but in the end

you’re not even sure what that thing

is that you wanted so badly

that would drive you to kill?

It’s not dementia.

It’s not hunger

or even thirst

or a quest for sleep

but it persists

needling at you

like a Reese Witherspoon

chin kneading into the

meaty part of a shoulder.

taunting and haunting

a ghost.