It Always Rains In Graceland
They poisoned the well
The mail arrives from the local council there’s arsenic in our water, it’s fine, so they say. It’s 13:52, my daughter calls pick up from Wingpoint Laser tag birthday spoils squirter guns sugar high We talk about London, the first visit in seven years green card permanent resident US citizen They do not know the name of their grandmother “Nigel,” my son quips, “Robin, perhaps?” We laugh. Their surname is my step-father’s mother’s maiden name we all agree it’s better than Smith. I recount a full complement of sisters biological half step and I do not love any. Paul Simon hums too low to decipher, he’s bouncing through tenements. We buy discounted zero-calorie water, read the ingredients Calcium disodium EDTA, Potassium Benzoate We drink anyway. It’s 14:43 and a war rages on.
