Times I've been slide over the counter
with a child-proof cap.

1. 
You told me you loved everything I did for you
but not the way I tasted. 
You said
you loved me like cough syrup--
like sticky shot glasses--
this fake-grape blood that they use to mask
my chemicals has been the only artificial 
part of me-- the prosthetic-- they grew my 
vesicles in a vacuum so no one was mistake 
my taste for something grown with dirty hands.

2. 
Split the calcium pill between my teeth
because we already have too many joints and 
big pills feel like beetles tittering down
your throat.

3. 
I was the silence of the aspirin tablet--
Advil and you're mother's veil 
silky in the back of the closet
like a spider web-- woven to catch
flies and the thickest beetles.

4.
I became so routine that I was consumed
like gel-gemstone before the
first aches of the morning settled in your
ankles.

5. 
Valium

5. 
Your mother's name is Lisa like everyone's mom

6. 
Ignore the dosage if it tastes like a gummy bear-- 
You consumed me each day like a jar like
the candies they tricked you into believing 
had vitamin a, b, c, and d hidden inside--

6. 
Vitamin-- C only tastes like oranges because we think it does.

6.
No one knows what vitamin a, b, or d do but we like the idea of alphabets 
you said I know how you spell you name
and that was a good enough reason to love someone.

6. 
I couldn't spell his last name and never would.

7. 
They told you that you need fluoride and all you can think of
is fluorine and neon lights the nobility of compounds you
can only breath in-- fluorine is toxic and I so am 
I even though you find me as easy as a counter top--
roll me across-- 

7. 
If lids were child proof you wouldn't have opened me
like this without your mother knowing.

7. 
I can't help that cherries don't
taste like my skin-- there will be no pit
to spit on the sidewalk or out a window

7.
Fluorine would kill the beetles
if we opened the lid.

7. 
Loose your teeth in the sink.

8.
You need me to hold cats
and sleep over at your girl friend's house--

8.
I'll be the one you fall asleep to
no matter how many cats there are.

8.
I'm in the cat fur.

8.
I'm the reason you own a lint brush.

9. 
Treat cough drops like candy 
to make people think you still 
have a cold.

9.
You still don't like the taste.

10.
I wasn't made to me rolled over
the counter--

10.
I want to be eaten like
bare-foot grape soda or murderous
black-berry hands-- flick off
the beetles and stand on the porch next to me 
for one night 
without my cap.

10.
Call me lover instead of cabinet.

10.
What good am I without the beetles?

10.
Valium

10.
Your mother loved me like cough syrup.

10.
You printed your name on 
a label around my waist and called me--

10.
Doctor

10.
Nurse.

10.
Beetle.

10.
Emergency contact.

10.
The number of vitamins 
you taste when you eat oranges
without me on the porch.

10.
The open child-proof cap.

10.
It's just beetles 
left when you finally open the jar
without your mother.

10.
It's just beetles.