3 Truths & a Lie
[ Louisville, Kentucky ]

sometimes we see every season in a week & there must be a metaphor for the geographic battleground & tornado warning sirens & how the Midwest is at the nape of our neck huddling us into a hallway on a Thursday but the South knocks like a rock thrown at the door on Sunday morning & says remember it’s hot like casserole like a church fan like pages clinging together like skin sticking to the pew like running sprints on the blacktop until all the body salt falls forehead to jaw & a cold shower is better than sleep. sometimes we see every season in a week & there must be a metaphor for the geographic battleground & how the South rode up & the North fell down & the porch swing is for sitting & where we’re from depends on our parents. sometimes we see every season in a week & there must be a metaphor for the geographic battleground & that one year the windstorm toppled the traffic lights like a beheading & then the snowstorm shuttered us in for two weeks & all the kids watched the bottom of the television screen & shouted smiles for another lost school day until we didn’t.

one time the bus never came.
it’s the South because you have to have a car or be late.
it’s the Midwest because it’s in the river water.
one time we all cursed Indiana.
it’s the South because segregation.
it’s the Midwest because segregation.
if the library floods that’s the same as defunding books.

if the city is a body it’s redrawing its anatomy & cuts the left palm where the hip goes just to lie integration. if the city is a body it’s redrawing its anatomy & cuts the colon where the throat goes just to say there’s a new business district. if the city is a body it’s redrawing its anatomy & cuts the fat where the lungs go just to both hands twist the torso and withdraw a clean red line.

one time i loved my city.
one time i critiqued it the most.
one time i shook my head in disgust
until i remembered all the houses & storefronts dissolving from my memory
once occupied & dissolved all the home from generation else’s.