Mommy Brain

What is the best trope
                         mommy did you know vampire bats are real vampires
for the smell of her hair
                                                 Apple boss! Apple boss!
sweet smell of her skin
why does thought need
                                                             Mommy he called me a weirdo!
to be a train
                         they turn into vampires they bite an animal and eat its blood

barreling, one track
                                                             He said he never wants to hug or kiss me
only changeable
with a switch
                                                 Tease! Tease!

                          and it takes an hour to eat it all and if they don’t they die and they fly
oh to have tracks
be grounded somewhere
                                     faster than all the birds in the world

But could it be a boat,
                                                  Pop caw! Pop caw!
floating on a current
                                                             and he’s mean to me all the time
but lilting, a yard northward
                         and there’s a brown recluse spider that’s in georgia and it can kill you!

will take it up the coast
                                                 Knack? Knack?
or to south, farther out
to where the word ocean becomes
                                                             I just love you more than the stars
another it’s called
metaphor for the deep
                        and what does a tarantula do

can swallow you up if you
                                                 Mommy I want to talk to you, but just I don’t know what to say!
find yourself
chasing a whale, can carry you

behind a gnarled marlin
                        and there’s a goliath spider, i don’t know what it does

to a place your hands will scar
                                                 More! More!
and you forget
                                                 you’re the sweetest mommy ever
what has saved you

Elizabeth Cranford Garcia’s work has appeared in publications such as Boxcar Poetry Review, 491 Magazine, Yellow Chair Review, Mom Egg Review, Psaltery & Lyre, as well as two anthologies, and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart prize. She is the current Poetry Editor for Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought and previous Poetry Editor for Segullah. Her first chapbook, Stunt Double, was published in 2015 through Finishing Line Press. Her three small children compete with her writing for attention, and usually win. Read more of her work at elizabethcgarcia.wordpress.com.