Leeches paint the face of my sister’s heirloom yarn doll.
I am the insurrection!

I feed gum to the squirrels and Alka Seltzer to seagulls,
Paint foxes black, braid sheep’s wool, fit beavers for braces,
Insert PVC into gopher holes leading to glaciers,
Throw shoeboxes filled with trench warfare, famine, strip tease neon, lunar rovers,
right angles with all their oppression
into the koi pond.

The malignancy in her breast was treason!

It was not unprovoked as I have been caught
Trying to extinguish the stars with a pinprick,
Marrying a caterpillar then eloping with the tortoise,
Covering Capistrano with aluminum foil because it was too compliant,
Hanging a magnifying glass over the ocean to spotlight jellyfish and expose their transparency.

She was afraid of percussion:
Ducks taking flight like ICBMs,
The ground threatening the neighbors,
Dust devil serrating chain-link fences,
Or mosquitoes encircling the Koran.

Cancer curdled her blood,
Stretched tight the stench of dying,
Left her a carcass to be scooped up off the shoulder of Highway 101,
Rang the bell, started the machine,
And closed the door.

As the eldest, it is imperative I redeem her honor—
Because my family invented fire.