>FLASH!<
10 years old
he blows bubbles
and grins his high-cheeked grin

 
>FLASH!<

leg irons
rattle and clank in rhythm
as yet another string
of forgotten ones
streams back into cages
 

>FLASH!<

he squishes orange playdough
through is fingers
while mischief and Mystery
stream from his princely Nubian eyes
like shooting stars
against a midnight blue-black sky
 
>FLASH!<

he sits alone
in the corner
cigarette absently-mindedly dangling
from cracked and dried
but still royal
lips
the open steel commode
beside him,
haunted sockets
stare vacantly
at a spider on the wall
where somewhere deep inside
mamhadababyanditsheadpoppedoff
and glistening bubbles
float like faeries
over St. Stanislaus’ cemetery.