without passing by them
or stepping on
brushing against
walking under them.
They're absolutely
everywhere, unavoidable.
Last week,
your dog buried one in your back yard
by the yellow slide,
close to where he hid
your dad's old left penny loafer -
the one with the hole where his big toe
showed through.
It no longer showed through.
Your younger sister,
though still small,
took one of her own home with her
from the park
and put it on the highest shelf
in her bright pink room,
next to her favourite doll,
where no one could find it.
No one could find it.
She even made it a bit tough for her
to reach back up and get it.
Just last night,
at that big family gathering,
I saw your uncle softly spit one
behind your mom's ear.
I don't know how he kept it
in his mouth
for so long,
but the saliva will surely keep it tightly tucked
in your mother's hair
with her pretty, green, dangling earrings
as a barrier
to keep others from getting too close
for her liking
and
to keep it
from getting out.
They lie under creaky floor boards
in old houses,
where no one would dare to look.
Parents put them
in closets,
under beds,
behind all the monsters,
which keep the kids
scared to peak.
And they are even coated in spit
from uncles' mouths -
disgusting,
repulsive -
but with a shiny, metal exterior
to make people smile and think nothing
of the slobbery, dirty things.
Like the native Americans
who fell for trickery
and traded their land
for shiny metal objects,
because they were pretty.
They, too, lie in the waxy glaze
of those shiny metal things,
which caused the corruption of lands
hundreds of years before your dog
thought to bury his in the soil,
where the same mistake
had taken place.
My own aren't too difficult to find.
They reside in a few locations -
in an art room,
a ceiling tile of a freshman dorm,
the closets of an old school.
Mainly, though, in my room,
behind my canvases,
on the canvases.
Next to the paintbrushes and paints -
watercolor, acrylic, oil.
Usually acrylic.
They're in a wooden art box,
underneath the pastels
and the ebony pencils.
Others have seen them and
received them.
Look there
and you're good to go.
They're good to go
and the price range isn't bad.
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