She came into our lives, dragging her two sons and heavy bible. One of her sons beats on me at least once a day. The other makes me suck him in the woods during our walks to and from school. I’m ten, he’s sixteen.

My dad and her are having a discussion. Today I told her other son I would suck him if he quit beating me. Now she want’s to find a corner of the world for people like me.

I pretend to be engrossed in a classic movie.

I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.

He can’t stay here, he’s unclean-

Now it is just like all the other horses.

I see the way he looks at my sons, he leers at ’em-

The effort, the preparations, all the expense!

My boys think he’s gay-

The traffic jars the shelves and things fall off them.

If he’s gay, God will destroy this house! Brimstone will rain down upon us as long as he lives here-

But blue is wrong for – roses…

O.K. I’ll box his things and take him to his mother. I won’t call her. I’ll drop him on her front lawn-

I am a blue rose…