Teasey wakes up and demands his biscuits
The milk must be poured just so
The water must be half-filled with ice
and if any of it is wrong
There will be holy hell to pay.
Outside later Harrison flips cicadas
and carries them on a stick to safety.
If Teasey catches one, they are dead
Their little husks brittle and oozing
in-between his tiny hands.
At the grocery store he scatters a whole carton of blueberries.
I make Harrison wait on a bench so that his sticky fingers
do not adhere to any chocolate bars in the checkout aisle.
"I'm a fire engine, I'm a rat in a cage,
I'm a tongue singing without a mouth," sings my eldest.
Together they scream as loudly as they can
while tearing my couch to pieces.
I let them wail on me,
little fists of rage, eyes eager and mouths grinning
hopelessly toothy grins of malice.
What joy there is in watching these monsters grow.
What have I unleashed upon the world?
You cannot convince me that the world does not deserve it.
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