Imported Poems

found myself in a
child abuse parlor last weekend
doing laundry as the children sang
London Bridge is
Falling Down
between intermittent smacks and screams
they raced around their mother's patience
and the spin cycle was their mom on crack.
i nearly cried/nearly phoned the cops
but she called a "time-out"
put herself in a corner
what? her little girl asked from where she'd
been playing hide-and-seek with
brother from behind a shoji bedroom sheet
mommy's mad; i'm taking a time-out she
explained; homeward-bound i
saw her outside, light where her face should've been
that was beautiful, what you did for
your kids...i wish my mom had done the same for me
i said i heard
her thank you stretch back over a million miles.