Day 676

How does a person grow down? the child
asks.  She’s thinking about her cousin,
dead of starvation, two thirds
of his body weight gone.  At nineteen,
he died weighing what she weighs.
Grow down?  when everyone asks her
what she will do when she grows up.
Grow down?  As though
she could be a baby again?  A two-
or a three-year-old?  As though
she could start over again
in her own house.  Her own
neighborhood. As though things
could be again the way
they were:  food
on the table, voices of friends
through the open windows.
Her grandparents alive
and reading to her, singing
old comforting songs.  Walking
outside with her, taking each
of her hands.