the playroom
by Quinton Okoro
the room was never clean for long
bottles with scoliosed spines
expired pools of water
the sun came in and boiled the drinks
vivisected rubik’s cube we solved it that way
that’s how we solved things by tearing them asunder
scattering the pieces like bird bones or flower petals
we broke our toys it was compulsory
we could not have nice things
we could not hold nice things except in our shameless fingers
we were never careful where we stepped
the smaller the brick the sharper the footfall
when we were tasked with tidying we gutted dolls instead
picked through cotton organs
sat in cardboard boxes painted worlds on their insides
we made ourselves into plastic men
we built our dreams in plastic tried to fit inside of them