the rage of parents

when daddy gets mad the big barn gets jitters in its bones if he gets really mad the barn crashes into itself

it collapses and lies there like a broken leg on the empty prairie under gray cloud and everything is big and dead for a long time

when mommy gets mad a stone castle we saw in our dreams explodes like a planet tight things locked in its dungeon rocket up – bats and wounds and red shrieking

then the castle is gone and there is a singing meadow its flowers are Saturday morning and Stevie whistling and everything scrubbed