the summer we invented thunder
you were forever asking a girl named andrea
out
thunder
is four parts mix tape
some february
shavings from a light bulb
a colander of nursery rhyme
& allspice

the hour you lost your mind
& wrote last wills and testaments on waffle house napkins
you left our littlest brother the recipe for thunder
you left the bridge above the water
& below heaven.
the distance between the two
was disparaging
somehow the ink in the pen was winning
you left our drunk mother
every bellow & holler in your short life
on her weedy doorstep

the year planes started falling down the staircase
I stopped going to roller rinks
stopped anticipating the couples’ skate
& therefore forgot how to do anything backwards
break up with a girl
run out of gas
talk myself out of a fistfight

I fist fought all throughout the aught’ nines
I lost
& I won
I threw whole barbecues
once
after battling my enemies