circling with a knife

i'm at a friends

house

playing parcheesi

in about 1973 when i get

a call

from my little

brother,

panting frantically, telling

me,

to hurry home,

my sister is chasing him

with a butcher

knife around

the room.

i didn't ask why,

i just took my last turn

so i take my last turn,

then ran

the ten blocks

back to the house,

hopping fences along

the way,

a short cut through

the alley 

where i dodged barking

dogs

and bums

crawling out of dumpsters.

it was just another

day

while my mother lay

in a hospital having yet

another baby.