1
sometimes an act of will creeps in
somewhere in a small hole that
cannot be seen or felt as if it had
been there all along but is now just
below the surface where say a crater
might have been a hundred thousand
years ago & now the size only a child
might see its body may not have
been caused by some thing of
consequence & yet maybe has been
caused by something of so much
consequence she willed to forget it
because who knows what she
would do knowing the cause in
the first place—this is not known
to her this hole that spirits burst in
& out & she does not know what to
think of them as she watches their
spinning web watching as if years
ago before she remembers the hole or
the web & the spirits told her what to
expect when she first caught sight
of them in secret she was to hold them
never to reveal them lest she is thought
to be crazy and sent away would she
want this she asked & spent no time
thinking the hole would close after
the spirits’ conference & departed
leaving the child & her open wound
never healing no matter what doctors
said & they tried everything & told
her mother over & over nothing was to
be done and as soon as it was stitched
up miraculously and on the same day
or night to the same width or depth
this was something she was thankful
to mother praying morning & night
the wound intact she could rest in piece
before she died but once in a while
she showed her stitched wound-hole
to friends & some would scream &
some would run & some would cry &
some would laugh & she never
showed it again as if the wound-hole
had scattered stitches to show-off
but she could not forget the massive
encounter when very soon one girl
among many dreamed the wound-hole
masqueraded as she slept & she
would see her wounds in awakening
& the second girl caught the dreams
as if the apocalypse had arrived to
take her away never to return to her
first life & she screamed mother save
me from him the monster harboring
inside me but the mother confessed
she would have nothing to do with
animals of the deep & she saw him
the father run into her bedroom &
he saw the infections harboring in
his daughter & it was only a dream
& she fell asleep except did he know
the girl was not his daughter but
an identical one screamed want-
ing for her father who disappeared
in the middle of the night this father
when the girl was born & never saw
the daughter & she fell into a heap
of jagged boards she lay sobbing
& pounding the floor as the spirits
invaded her body poking holes in
her legs and arms and wherever
the spirit took charge & she cried
for help father i need you help me
but the father disappeared & she
cried herself to sleep when in
the morning mother found the girl
with her thumb in her mouth in
a tub of water up to her throat
sleeping peacefully unharmed dis-
armed & mother did not see spirit
droppings on her daughter’s arms
2
who could have predicted spirits had
by this time a ready-made audience
& addressed their every need—gave
them everything they wanted—those
spirits attention seekers they are & how
hungry they are could not get enough
from these girls, who would know
how to stop them even the mothers
remained unaware but the fathers
thought they knew the secret of spirits
what kept them activated at night in
the dreams of these girls & the spirits
together as dreams to stop all this
sickness and the girls found it inside
themselves to say we have a duty
to mothers and scheduled a conference
in the middle of their dreams & built
a bonfire to convince the mothers who
never awakened to the smell of fire
too guilelessly convinced notions
nothing whatsoever would happen to
the daughters, nothing so drastic as
what the daughters had seen in their
dreams little did they know spirit
visitation opened in some small way
never get rid of never shake off
a wound would lock up in their
bodies in their minds wounds to
live their lives shake off without
knowing the spirits had arrived
was it so bad these uninvited invited
holes would not close these wounds
or find the cures of stitches pills for
drugs when mothers began to think
they did not know what was in it for
them they did not know it had never
happened until it did & fathers know
a brave man when they see him
how to seal visitations of daughters
& all the daughters of mother and father
& granddaughter & great-grandmother
& bless her heart with preventative action
against the moment spirits invaded
the space around her bed in her dreams
in her sleep until she could no longer
sleep or dream or walk or talk or dream
or sleep or cry or whisper or jump or act
or smile or laugh or dance or hop or skip
or run or play or shout or see or dance or
hop or skip or run or play or shout or laugh
see or hear or move or dream the father
he who dreams the spirits’ touch to
open the wound of the daughter and
all the daughters and the girl the other
one the first girl the one sucking her
thumb in the tub of dreams with her
blanket of dreams the daughter & all
the daughters in the middle of night
and the other one in the night and
one found walking under the moon
light on the six-foot fence & dreamed
the other one with her dog and she
the queen dreaming and the she
who slept through all to awaken
in the morning to serpents coiled at
the pit of her stomach what is this
she asks awakening in the dream
invaded by the spirits and the father
knew he knows what it’s all about
a great comfort the mother says
when will you turn it around she says
bonfires won’t take it away she says
she knows he will not tell her what
he knows he wanted to but he
could not confess the extinction
of life or tell her these open wounds
will never heal did he dream this his
escape the first sign he had them
he knew he had always known but
mother saw and she knows you are
not for real she said to him where is
our daughter tell me find a cure of
your mind she whispers & he breathes
the infection the cure I cannot do she
whispers & breathes the infection
i cannot do this alone inside fire he
says thinking what needs to be
done he cannot do it alone come
with me he says I will show you
& all the girls inside the scene
of the mothers & fathers who knew
3
the girl wandered into the father’s room shaking him
someone wants to talk to you he’s been waiting his
whole life this voice & he holds his face in his
hands & light radiates the room and shines
through the window radiating the sky
the father whispers
to the daughter
what do you
want from
from me
silence
pervades
the room
there is
nothing
but
silence
she
sees
him
Father
