from “Tanker Truck”

Let my story reign: I insisted that at dawn I ducked out of the igloo and met a crocodile in the Nile whose palace was warm

I insisted that ten toes aimed their blood-red lenses at stalactites and chased me all the way to the sand dunes, goading me to steal the crocodile’s hide

I met you, running

like you always do

I insisted that when I opened an old textbook my ant egg of a father tumbled out and when I chased after him kids with hunched backs cracked their whips as they spilled, one by one, out of my eyes

I insisted that on nights when father clutched his aching stomach and rolled in pain teeth ripped through the gum to sprout like white calabash blossoms dripping blood

I met you, rolling

like you always do

I insisted that every morning the radio alarm would bleed and my two ears would be drenched in blood

I insisted that from time to time, from the center of my body, red petroleum would gush out and my mother, who had just rid her body of its burden, would trickle out and burst into black flames before disappearing to the other side of the earth

I met you, flowing

like you always do