Things Better Left Alone

I've learned to shut my mouth and let some things be.

“What the fuck? Get your ass over here! Now!”

My mama told me that when I was
born that “I Will Always Love You”
was being played over the hospital
intercom system. She said the voice
of heaven watched over me and that
Whitney Houston sang like an angel
because she actually was one.

(Glass heard breaking through thin walls.)

Mama said she would sing it to me
to put me to sleep when I was a baby.
Mama's face lit up whenever the song
came on the radio and she would again
delight in repeating her account
of me being born to anyone listening.
She claimed Whitney sang it just
for my birth and I believed her.
I believed every word.
I was born in 1989.
That version of the song was
released in 1992.

”Bitch! You not hear me?! I said move your ass!”

When I was in the 3rd grade I saw
Amanda Porter call Katie Ann
a tattletale, then she hit her in the
face and I watched as blood gushed
out from Katie’s nose. Katie later told the
school nurse that she had accidentally
fallen off the swings. That same day,
when Mrs. Hill had her back turned,
I saw Amanda cheating on our spelling test.

(Children crying.)

My next door neighbor has 4 kids
and a new boyfriend.
She works hard and is very prideful,
but it is clear she financially struggles.
I placed a box outside her door
of some spare clothes with a card
and some cash. She knocked on
everyone’s door wanting to thank whoever
did the act of kindness. When she
came to my door, her boyfriend
told her to stop bothering folks
and get her ass inside and get
busy cooking because it was him,
he had got her everything.

”Please, not again. Not in front of the kids.”

Some things are better left alone.

”You worthless piece of shit! You did this to yourself! This is what bitches get for back talkin’!”

AND SOME THINGS ARE JUST FUCKING NOT!