Amanda Deo

A m a n d a   D e o

She Thought They Had Something Special

She caught my dad getting pulled over for speeding near the house he no longer lives in. He was driving a car she didn’t recognize on a stretch of road that couldn’t spell anything. There was a wealth of trees standing between the guardrail and his upside-down spine. He wept onto the pavement like he was alone. He held his hands out, palms up, for the cop. He looked like he could have been asking for lashes but she knew he was trying to remember what it was like to hold their youngest son.

I’m in a City You Hate

I’m in a city you

hate. I’m in the way

you wished I kept

locked in.

I’ve got a phantom

limb that reaches

around your waist

while you sleep and

knuckles that curl

around a kidney I’ve

already taken.

It will be morning before

you even realize this.  

It will be someone else before

the tide comes in and rescues you,

wet and slippery, from me.  

When I put you down

you won’t hear the

pins of my shoulders

come back up for air.  

I’m growing as I leave.

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