Why I wear a decoder ring

after weeks of eating
too sweet the cereal
box top-clip
a lick
a stamp
I wrote
my name-clearly
just so they
would know
who
I was
and then
I waited
years for the toy of it
writing
my name
on any scratch of paper filling
I could
find
I wrote little
when I was
always preferring the roller
ball ink
black over
blue
and I wrote
the natural aggression
of angst-progressive
in accents
of fucking
that offended
my mother
as she read
my legible name-she
belted
insults and
welted my urge and
she thought my content
needed
doctoring
I lost my
voice
as I waited
for a return
envelope arrival

it finally
came
my secret decoder ring
I wear it-use it
because
you never know
what mother
might
read

psgates