How many hugs would it take to get Mary to eat again?

How many prayers until peace?

Save the food

save the love

save the children

save yourself.

This is me

overanalyzing the situation.

Seeing death threats

and dirty bombs

on plates of china that have been in my family for generations.

This is me

unforgiving of the situation

because doing battle over this is not the answer.

How many hugs would it take to get Mary to eat again?

Solid food

and

solid emotion

and not all of this silence

and wet hair

dripping down my back.

She painted her fingernails black

and the shirt that I bought her for Christmas was already a size to big by New Years.

How many hugs would it take to get Mary to eat again?

How many words

lift loudly spoken

and languidly dissolved

like Grandpa's forefinger pointed at us unscrupulously

and his Pepto-Bismol liquefying in his cup.

They always said that you were too skinny.

How many hugs would it take to get Mary to eat again

and see the bones

fighting free of her skin.

To hear the blood flowing through her veins

ready for the get away car.

How many yesterdays would it take to fill up tomorrow.

How many hugs would it take to get Mary to eat again?