good thing no one in this family was a reader;
I’d have books floating out the back door, me.

Some neighbors passed, saw us hauling rotten carpet, a scene of spoiled
eggs and sewer and shouted “y’all back?”
Like,                                                  What’s it look like?
You can’t forget the smell that comes after it’s how I learned
mildew isn’t a color it’s a texture, the raised level on a styrofoam cup
condensation     white pepper     it changes with your fingerprints
it reminds us that there is water under us all

Loving this damn               underwater place
a wound
that remembers when things were dry