Breaking Up With Cleveland, August 2005

I wanted to call my mother to thank her for the mailed box of underwear,
but the kids killed the phone.

I wonder, who could stand, to have 5 kids with Hermanowski?
I'll tell you who--some 5'3" woman named 'Kim'
(she has an over active thyroid condition).

they stand in my kitchen and tell me I'm an artist,
that I could 'sell it.'
yeah, but, I could sell my body parts.
(I've been painting that painting for 4 years tots, but I thank ye lots)

the kitchen, it's got funny spots all in triangles and diamonds and in dots
"I ain't gots no diamonds," I say to Cory, "Glory girl, I've barely got the zirconias cubed."
Laura's got a silver of a real iceberg, a stencil of a real husband
whose dull remarks become quite cumbersome.
Kristi's asking me if I got a boyfriend tellin' me hers don't listen, insisting that she has gotten the diet bee dee that sucks you dry and makes you die.

I don't dare tell her about cataracts and my glaucoma.

Brooklyn has bumped her head and is crying in the bathroom.

I don't want to share my food anymore

I don't want to pick up another baby

I don't want another meaningful conversation

I don't want visitation

And no, I don't want to go.

Standing in the parking lot, talking a lot about nothing.
Yeah, man, it was something standing in the sun, charming everyone who crossed my path that that
was the good stuff that was the flip side of manic-depression, I care not what you could delegate.
Elaborate the staircase of silliness that spins and spins in a whirlwind of ups and downs...

I fully realized today that you left me

And finally understood,

That it was for good.