17.03.05 - 6:26 p.m.

my parents' texas backyard was big and flat,
dead grass and ant hills and dirt like what you
find in gardens, the kind that you sink into
a little with every step and leave
perfect footprints that last for days. the only thing i
liked to do there was lay on the ground
and concentrate on the sky, build
blinders to block out my peripheral vision and
pretend i was floating in space. when i saw
the earth rotating on its axis i wasn't scared,
i watched the tops of trees move under cloud cover
and watched those clouds change shapes as the world
moved and i was rewarded for my concentration.
i stood up and ran inside to my brother, yelled
asa asa i saw the earth rotating on its axis and
he pulled me close, brushed the hair out of my eyes hard,
rubbed my cheeks and bare arms and legs,
dad said that's not the earth spinning, it's
the clouds moving with the wind, he laughed
and my brother said don't tell her that,
you saw the earth move i know you did and when
i looked down to see why he was out of breath,
why his hands were moving faster and faster i saw that i was
covered from head to toe in red ants.