John Ryan Turner

Minou came to show me her English words
She lives next door
She came to wake me up
She colors contentedly on my floor
I think of those toddlers who pressed their noses
against the window of my old basement apartment
I think about that boy Minou's age
who starved to death last month
while the neighbors watched
John Ryan Turner was his name
Minou knows many English words
She makes faces to show
she finds her sister a pain
Little one is making a picture of me
The death of that little boy in the suburbs
Why can't I cry for him
She drew a funny picture of me
She's looking at a book of Michelangelo
I can't finish anything with her around
She is dancing to a Strauss waltz