How we keep safe
Motes spin slow and golden in that cinder block cell you've entered because your mother asked for a clean rag high on warped aluminum shelves twice your height Rag Doll slouches against Teddy their eyes dull expressionless with gray chalk you decided just a year ago you were too old but already they belong to another time like this bomb shelter those crazy alarmists built it back in the sixties before you were born Mom and Dad say it's no good there's the window the dust dancing window nuclear haze will seep in thicker than dust but war has never come to America not in your life and why doesn't it you're always safe and the power always returns and the bomb shelter only tests its mettle against tornadoes and hide and seek behind the ancient roll of avocado carpet you have not yet learned that it's always war when we suffer at each other's hands so it's hide and seek it's run inside and grab the rag at Christmas unearth the plastic tree and lights and hide the china where it's safe under Doll and Teddy.