4 stars

there was a wasp nest on the back porch

it looked like dead honeycomb

outside was a hornet’s hive

I stuck my hand out there

the sun buzzed loudly

nothing could bite me

a caterpillar did

I climbed its tree

it kissed me with its back

its hair was sharp

enough to leave four stars

spinning in my palm

the world spun through my arms

and crashed onto our street

so I picked it up

at the back of the backyard

was a rusty shed falling apart

inside it I swear there was a giant sleeping

I woke him told him my dreams

and led him humming

back into our yellow kitchen

the countertops were always covered in top soil

my mother loved to garden

and to collect marbles inside of mason jars

we were never allowed to touch them

I loved the smell of the air conditioner

there was one in the dining room

and one in my parents’ bedroom

putting my face in front of the vents

made me feel like Sunday

I could bike the whole square of the block in two minutes flat

my friends Jalal, Put, and Rue lived around the corner from us

there was a tree in front of their house

too big to be a birch

my friend Samandar lived two fence hops away

his mother showed mine what God looked like

God He smelled like my father

both their beards were black bears

me and Mom went fishing in the park

I caught two catfish

and waited for them to die

they swam in circles inside of our refrigerator

because I had never learned how to kill anything

in Mississippi we ate every single perch that I caught

the grasshoppers there?

they are the size of an Almond Joy

my sister she had a pet rat

part of his ear was gone

his name was Pierre

I named my mouse after a favorite book

Charlotte’s Web

she is buried under a white rock in the backyard

the day our dog died

Pops found him hanging on the clothesline

I cried into my pillow

I was ten years old

I could fit under the house

my knees didn’t care

neither did the dark

after the tub

the hallway from the bath’s room to mine

was a dark tunnel

breathing only to swallow me whole

I shivered

and was more afraid of that walk

than anything ever since

even now there are moments

where it still shakes me

but there were times when the night

sat beside me on my bed quietly

like it was a big man

who had to do what I told him to do

he was too dumb

or he loved me too much

either way he had the same smile

I ain’t never been stung by a bee before

not my whole life