What We Didn't Want
       

I don't know how other people kill bugs, but my family used fire.
The first time my mom let me help, she handed me
the can of Aqua Net while holding the lighter
in front of the wasp's nest that hung from the porch light
over our front door. When I flick the flint, point at the nest
and push down. The hiss of the hairspray through flame
and the crackling of their papery wings was a song.
Now, don't ever do that without me, she said.

The next day, Tracy from across the street and I went
searching for things to burn. She borrowed her mom's hairspray,
I stole a lighter from 7-11, and we tested our blow torch
on everything: newspaper, candy, grass, wet leaves, dry leaves, the mean
neighbor lady's roses, my little sister's Barbies, plastic bags, the terrible
Y orkie sweater Grandma Shannon gave me for Christmas, the note
listing chores, family photos of fathers not really in the picture.

It was so easy to get rid of what we didn't want, and afterwards
the smell of lighter fluid clung to our hair like perfume.

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Copyright © 2018 Sarah A. Chavez All rights reserved
from Hands That Break and Scar
Sundress Publications
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission