our daughters 
were hurricanes

cut your sneakers down
from the telephone wires
run down 
the center of
noble street with me--

balance on 
the double yellow lines--

if we run fast enough
we can lose these
bodies-- 

if i didn't have
this body i would
have the sky 
& the melting polar
ice caps--

let's run
up there & down there
tell them
to stop this none sense--

tell them that there's
nothing to cry over 
that there's never been
anything to 
cry over-- 

we'll put
a blue ice packs
on their foreheads &
say 
you're burning up
you're burning up

with a fever of 99.7
i stayed home from
elementary school &
my father dropped
goldfish crackers 
into chicken noodle
soup
taught me how to 
swim--

taught me how to
let myself melt--

he told me the polar bears
are melting & breaking 
off into the sea--

& all the while 
the news reports warned
that
our daughters were
becoming hurricanes--

they were tying
their sneakers
together & tossing them
over the telephone
wires on 
noble street--

they were outrunning
their bodies & 
dispersing into
the grass as morning
dew-- 

oh i've always 
wanted to trade
my skin to become
a morning fog

headlights
shout through me

i wrote a letter
to the ice caps
& told them to swallow
their tears
like i learned 
to swallow my own--

paper cup by paper cup

their bodies gained force 
up east coast--

swirled & knotted
into themselves--

she screamed with a force
of 80 mph 
& trees un-clenched 
their fists from
the soil & the sand 

oh our daughter maria
what had we done to
you to 
turn you into a cyclone--

was your mother 
so jealous 
that she let herself melt
into the sea?

when i'm done running 
there will be no such
thing as snow
& the earth will
be made of water 
& we will all be able 
to float 

i was the daughter
that plucked the eye
of the storm out
of her grandmother's
jewelry box--

a glittery brooch
pinned to my chest

by the time i
hit land i was a hurricane--

i pulled my sneakers 
down from 
the telephone line

& ran