Acute and Chronic

after Fallen by Lauren Kate

My daughter explodes
when told it's time for dinner
her childhood interrupted
by mundane survival.
Did kids explode
before childhood was invented
when no one expected
to do anything but survive
and there was no need
to relinquish plastic-duck-
molded-into-medical-doctor-
holding-tiny-reflex-hammer-
wearing-white-coat-and-head-mirror?
Maybe that quack was about to save her life
who am I to disrupt any diagnosis
it's out of my testicles
now her ferocious life
all I do is usher her into and out of
a little cloud of smoke
trying not to rupture its delicate ringlets
knowing one day I'll return to it
alone.

---

Jason morphew

started life in a mobile home in Pike County, Arkansas.  He holds a PhD in English Renaissance Literature from UCLA.  His second poetry chapbook What to deflect when you're deflecting is published through Poets Wear Prada and his first full-length collection, dead boy, is now available through Spuyten Duyvil.  As a singer/songwriter he's released albums on Brassland, Ba Da Bing!, Max!, and Unread.  He lives in Laurel Canyon and teaches English at UCLA.