the devil flips Impossible Burgers on the grill
(he makes it look possible)
my brother jumps into the deep
my other brother screams,
watch me! watch me! watch me!
i am a small girl child in a purple paisley swimsuit
i want the Devil to like me so i
remember to smile and complement the chef
you did a good sizzle, i tell him
we are poolside on another sunny family day in the san fernando valley
my itty bitty toes in blue
i pretend not to know anyone here
a mustached man is in a bucket hat
in a flip
in a flop
in a cement mixer
beside him is a woman with a knot of thick
dark sky
she sits in the shallow
faces the deep
soft lines on her face on her hands on her cracked cement
a long, white cigarette between her
lips
a crow on the roof above her
makes no sound no smoke no ash
those two boys
are older than the invisible moon
taller than the counting sheep
louder than the summer’s end
i want to eat all the deviled eggs!
there are no floaties on my olives
only droplets of now
the woman has a fat scar
above her left breast a
fat wave of copper brick
a fat fury of chlorine
a fat mountain of leaves
behind the pool
in the distance
is a brown garden
dry crunch in a hot breeze
there’s a half-eaten cracker in my hand
salty soggy almost gone
sounds of faraway chimes
past the pool past the garden past the savory
music-making rust hangs high
the mustached man’s eyes are closed now
he is sitting on a lawn chair
but there is no lawn
the same boy screams again,
watch me! watch me! watch me!
meanwhile,
no one watches me
so i hide all the deviled eggs under the woman’s hat
for later
for only me
a silvery blue dolphin rises up from the shallow and steals my cracker
a tiny salt kernel rests on my thumb i start to cry i lick the salt i stop crying
(everything is possible)
and the dolphin jumps over the moon
INSTANT NOODLES 