of light going over a waterfall

that froze halfway down,

like the boy that got stuck on

top of the ferris wheel & filled

his mouth with clouds.

When he got down birds flew

straight through him.

He rained the bed every night

& his mother began to worry so

she broke the lock to his diary,

which was full of love

letters or suicide notes

written in glued-down wasp legs

he had been coughing up in his sleep.

It mentioned the time he had

cut open a D battery with

the bolt cutters from the shed

just to see what was inside

& burned his face so badly

that no one looked at him anymore

& it was at this moment his mother

realized that after all this time

she did not know what her

son even looked like.