the shape of spilled milk

into hamiltons cove

The Shape of Spilled Milk

sitting too long

the stain takes on

its own glow

it evaporates 
                   all

of its liquid, it leaves

behind your crime,

my crime

And then what about your first

unnoticed spill, the shape of it

a mucky swirl, set at your left

side because that’s

your blind side, but not mine  

and remembering this to you
might rub the wrong way.  And

maybe that shape was the shape

of the day our mother left

the table and you spilled

your milk watching her
go and we gawked at

the door as much as we

watched the milk run down

toward the crack in the middle,

where the table can be pulled apart

for company and mostly that's when

on Sundays our grandmother

comes and she sits beside you

usually and she sees to it

that you don’t spill a thing.

But today it’s just us and we’re

watching how far

it will get before one of us
gets up, me

usually, when you were this

clumsy (and I’m thinking this

is part of what’s the saddest

because you were genuine

in your hunger and it was constant

and spilled milk must've felt numb

to you, the way arms and legs

feel numb when they’re laid on

for too long and only the in-

between stage is unpainful,

the space from sleeping to waking
to move

and that effervescent

rise is warm in the tingling blood…

and usually I gave you what milk

I had left and you were little and didn’t

refuse and I wiped it all up

and none was left now but the shape

of the streaks and there being

almost no way of escaping

being caught
(unless she doesn't come back
and I'm feeling guilty about that
now, wanting it a little) and I took that too

sometimes but mostly it was just

spilled milk and down through

that table crack and a drip drip

to the floor and wiping that

was always a stained kind of shape

because of dad’s boots at supper

time and especially if I’d skipped

sweeping the floor the night before

after dishes in which case the shape

of the spill was bumpy with gravel

or sand and a time or two
smelled like chicken's feet
or balls of dog shit

and you'd laugh, me telling you this.