"I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be."  ~ Joan Dideon

Copper skull strings,
hide of freckles,
choir of elders
watch me enter.
Lashes lowered,
side-eyes leftwise,
pull on sun-glasses
while cacaphoning
high note cackles,
'hurry, or go blind.'

            *
Black cats bad luck -
theys rub my legs,
warm my neck.
Cracks break mom,
I break them!
Dad's ladder -
crawl beneath to make
my bed - eyes beholding!

            *

G'head hit me
this skull is callused,
can you feel
the suture lines?
Long one leads to
my third eye blinded,
I will filter you whole
into my neoplastic gray
mass to XYZ you
in the fire of letters burned.

            *

I know my name
and how it's spelled,
my family calls me
by another.
I used to answer to it,
now I don't.  If they
choose to see me,
they may learn.