All the things I said I didn't mean-
that's the way it should be.
I never said I loved you
because I did.
But two unspeakable loves
stood twisted between us,
each silent because of the other,
comprising one another,
like a child exposing his mother.
You're all I ever wanted, all I ever needed,
if only you were different-
from you but not from me;
then the world would be a better place to be.

Southern ­Hospitality

We children used to laugh at him.
Every time we'd walk by John,
we would push his legs
and watch him swing back and forth
like a pendulum.
And we would laugh.
John knew not to talk back
to his owner.­ Eventually
the odor got so bad
and the rope around his red-striped,
black neck so loose he almost slipped
out of it that we stopped
pushing and laughing because
no one wanted to be whipped
for walking in the house
with his own vomit on himself.