In summer my tender

knee scabs come off


soft in the water 


first communion diadem 

discarded long ago


strewn about the old

new town, busy third street


School is out, soon we’ll get

a bluer pair of school shoes


same as last year

and my sisters were literally


born on the Fourth

when I was two


and we were so much

blonder then


Now missile noises in our

band of mouths    canonballing


This is our chlorine sheen

little resplendent


facts wrapped up in

theme towels, bleach-stained


ariel and flounder