Youngest Son
By Tina Cane
We used to laugh and say he was naked and flying around with the stars
before he came down to be with us these days he says When I was dead
because naked means sexy and he’s not a baby knows what sex is
would rather be dead but I don’t want the word dead around my kids
or around any mother’s son so I say Honey, you were never dead
and he says Then I fell like a raindrop into your mouth and I say Yes
how the other morning I said Yes when he called fog a cloud on the ground
how he was formed is forming from rain in my mouth just as one day
I believe he will go out for sweets & come back just like that
for some boys like him it may be that easy to not be a cloud
called back to its rain place for salt tears not to fill the space
left in his wake