When the Bough Breaks

Saw my mother standing

by the car’s hatch,

she was done loading items

out of the cart, where I sat.

A strong squall came

and I felt

the wheeled metal move

with that gust then with gravity.

I was a toddler sitting

in the seat made for my kind

and I was falling hard

against asphalt

not a rabbit hole

as Alan, not Alice

in front of a K-Mart

on pavement without any hint

of a slant.