“RAISING THE ALIEN”

you delicate thing

I don’t know how to raise you

without killing us both

I try to make a winner out of you

and you disappear into thin air

I try to let you breathe

and I see you slowly dying

you run from the sun

spit the milk from my breasts

then eat trash off the floor

like a rat in the moonlight 

you smash on my head

masterpieces I spent 

months painting for you

sweating up in the attic

you avidly smoke

after I shampooed your hair 

and the waves sit as fresh 

as the first day of spring 

you smear mud on the sheets

I hand washed for your limbs

to rest on after long days

of ruining all I worked for

I could go on and on and on

but you tire me tremendously,

looney girl, leave me be, 

crawl back into whatever

alien egg you hatched from

for you are maddening me and

I don’t think I can touch you without 

breaking you.

M.L. February ‘25