I surveil his ignition hands,

puckered by bloodline, touch

the memories steep with pain:

when he dunked my head

between swamp jaws,

tucked me into

a Boston Crab in the hotel pool,

drowned himself

in gasoline and struck

a match. And I try to picture

that grinning summer

we jumped

like mullet in and out

of hose-filled barrels,

the hot pavement hissing

as water slapped

in escape. I swam then

with a time bomb, and

called him bubby

because I couldn’t pronounce

brother.

 

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