Dollhouse

Little hairs begin to bristle during sunrise
trying to pull you away from slumber, but
you exude a mist of words
that leave your memory as they leave your lips

Don’t you worry
your grandma will remember them
your aunt will remember them
I will remember them for you

You’re struggling to fight the waking
with your cold hands and cold feet
that even the thickest blanket ignores to heat,
underneath the covers,
where birds and bats meet

On their way to greet light and darkness
that’s when it begins
that’s when you tell the candle
to stay upright in the stream of death’s breath

That’s when I hear you tell
the ivy to hold it’s poison
and the cancer to turn down the dance
with the life of a child

Now you tell the fallen leaves to stay crisp
and the leech to forget the color of love
and the maggots to stay out
and the moth not to cast his little shadow of doubt
in your dollhouse of dreaming