i got a dog
i got a cat
i got a rat
i got cockroaches
and guess what
i have more trouble
out of you
than i have
out of them
From Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez, edited by Margaret Busby (Nightboat Books, 2025). Copyright © 2025 by Jayne Cortez. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.