Why I Hate You

You never looked at me
on the subway. I waited
for twelve stops.

*

There was a long line
and we were both in it,
but to you I was a link.

*

Scalpels can reconstruct
the faces of the ugly:
the impositions of surgeons.

*

It’s only a pensive existence
where you come in. Don’t wash
my back and remove me scars.

*

Rolls of coins drop from your pockets
and nobody understands; there I am
cleaning them up, fitting them back in.

*

A car can hit
but a car can
also speed away.

*

Lights through the kitchen window
were just like the flashlights
when they came to get us under covers.

*

Once that concrete
was carved into shapes
we could recognize.

*

Beheld beneath those
brawny branches
a the girl in pink pajamas
and her mother screaming;
the blood pouring out,
but from which mouth?