& I groaned my freshly-earned car keys

biting hot mountains into my palm

but I said okay & I did more than go

I made god my younger brother took him

hostage buckled him lovingly in the back

of my secondhand kia soul

the booster seat bruised

his sides the enormity of him

condensed like a shark in a fishbowl

I told him I lied

to mom we’re not going to trent’s

just yet we have to pick something up first

cause only a villain goes to a kickback with nothing

but an extra mouth to feed

& when he asked if we could pray

before we left I pulled off & turned the radio up

loud screamed every lyric

even the ones that tasted like betrayal

he knew better than to ask again just tallied

each bitch & fuck & california stop

on his little god fingers until

we reached the only liquor store

that never cards it was august

almost 8 o’clock the world seemed to redden

around us each day a dying

god watched me squeeze into the only top

I was brave enough to crop

into being let’s go over

some ground rules I said

& he kicked his feet if someone asks

who you are & you say I am that I am

or some other puzzle bullshit

what you’ll be is thumbing it

back home then who am I he asked

we were crunching the gravel driveway

by then & I had only enough time

for honesty so I said tell them

you’re anything but with me