Dyslexia
Kyle Hemmings

The dreamy boy confused opposites. He stayed in the basement of the house that he called his root tower. His mother found him tucked into dark corners. She thought: wilting, wasting. When he refused to eat, the mother said anorexia. The father said anoxia. In the basement, the boy discovered the parents' old love letters. He misread loves as slave. He heard arguments. The father moved into the attic. The mother slept in the living room. The boy said I'm a mirror of bleeding ink. The father said my father was a tautology of egg-shaped vowels. The mother said she couldn't be reached except by cell phone.

1996 © 2009