Tracey Knapp

Answer the Question

Did you ever ask your mother what a lover was?
Why her eyes turned black when she smoked
over the sink? Did your brother tell you why
he shot his finger, or burned a hole in his plastic
clock? Did your father show you how to load
the ornamental bullets from the belt of his
officers’ gun?  Why did you smash slate with a hammer?
Can you name your scars and their reasons? Why
would you nail your dolls to trees? Why did you stop
tap dancing? Where were you when Jack and Jennifer
first kissed on Days of Our Lives? On the couch with
your hands down your pants: yes or no? Skittles or
Starbursts? Pick one. What about the first time a bee
stung your ankle in an old tire? Or falling off the picnic table:
do you just recall the story of it, or the fierce pinch
of stitches on your head? Was the hose left on to flood
the small lilies or water the salamanders under the old wheel?
You forgot your first doll’s name: true or false.
Yes or no: the window to the roof was a portal to the stars.
Did you see many shooting stars? Yes. Many, many
shooting stars. Lovers, yes, light years later.

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Tracey Knapp lives in Northern California. Her first collection of poems, Mouth (2015), won the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award. Recent work has appeared in On the Seawall, New Ohio Review and Rattle.