Storage Tank

You house my children
and my children’s children.
You are the ship carrying descendent cargo.

You are shrouded in hazardous vapor
like a myth. You hold the ten-prong
hanger dangling matter. The one
called back from eternity.

You have been cast off and delivered—
shipped to an office building,
and retrieved in my bedroom.

I do not know what it is like
to awaken suddenly, carried
in the body of another.

From Rodent Angel (NYU Press, 1997) by Debra Weinstein. Copyright © 1997 by Debra Weinstein. Used with the permission of the author.